MAX Force: Metahuman Action Xtreme
by ShatteredArmour
Summary: <html><head></head>A former student of Xavier's has collected six powered youths to form MAX Force, a team of superheroes. Their goal is to expose mutants to the public before Magneto or someone else can. Can MAX Force work with the X-Men? Or are they destined to clash?</html>
1. Prologue

Prologue: The Cauldron Boils Over

"You still teach well, my old professor." A man said as he watched a jet in the cold, white arctic take off. "But you must realize what this means..."

He stood at just less than six foot three and maintained a muscular build that even his white snow suit with the fur trim couldn't hide. His face was obscured by the snow goggles over his eyes and the hood hid the rest of his face and head save his strong jaw. His breath hung in the air, the vapour visible as he saw the Blackbird take flight and leave southwards.

"What has it been? Almost fifteen years since I sat at your feet?" He mused to himself as he started to walk towards where the plane once rested. The massive asteroid had been completely demolished by two streams of power cascading upwards and only but moments before had the rocks and debris stopped falling. "But now I have to take control of this situation. I must prevent a war between human and mutant _before _it can start. Magneto will only go into hiding until he's ready to move once again. We must move first..."

He bit his lip at that. He knew that mutants couldn't hide forever. Sooner or later someone would learn of them or expose them to the world, or Magneto would launch an attack and make it seem as if they were all hell bent on conquering humanity. He couldn't blame the man of his fear of humankind, but he wouldn't let him doom one race or the other, or let him destroy the planet in such a war. For almost nine years he had planned for the moment he would take control of mutant/human relations, starting with the word 'mutant'.

God he hoped that Xavier didn't choose that word and he picked it up from someone else. Sure, it was for all purposes what they were, but the word conjured images of green, scaled beasts coming out of a swamp or a deformed and disfigured man who had no empathy, crawling out of a wasteland.

Yeah, that had to go. It was a small thing, but he had public relations to worry about.

Then there was Magneto himself. He had to be stopped and contained before humanity learned of him. His ideology would not be easily changed and he was simply too powerful a being. If he launched his attack, and he knew the man would, humanity would see mutants as demigods with a superiority complex, not as people with abilities that they needed help with. But even if he couldn't find him, he could disrupt him by taking control of the relations of the two races.

Then there was his old teacher, Professor Charles Xavier. He was content to hide and bide his time, training his students in paramilitary tactics. The man could be shrewd however, but if ever discovered, along with all the training equipment he used, fears that he was training an army of super powered beings might erupt.

So the best solution, in his own mind, was at the same time the most risky; introduce mutants, or rather metahumans as he would rename them upon introduction, to humanity before anyone else could.

It was risky, but if he could control the first impressions humans had of them then he could make sure the war was not one of aggression but of public relations. He could make them out to be a minority, like they actually were, much like the Jews. He could paint themselves to be as human as humans were; functionally good with flaws.

He had over the past three years recruited a team of six metahuman youths, along with needed support, who would be the ones waging this war. But exposing them directly wouldn't work; it would give any foes they had, Magneto especially, something to attack. He had to obscure their identities and expose them another way; as superheroes.

The idea sounded ludicrous when he first brainstormed it. But as other ideas and plans were tossed aside as unworkable he found that this one, this one plan, had merit. He could try and capture people's hearts and imaginations with this, with a team of superheroes who went out and fought the good fight. A group who righted wrongs, and defeated villains, saved lives and stood for justice. It would be a hard sell to the public, but he was sure he could do it.

For three years he had trained the first member of this team, Reese Guarder, alias Spartan, to lead this team and take them through the hard battles. The other five members he had assembled just over a half year ago, training each of them to use their powers, abilities, and how to fight for the side of good. Reese was ready, but he wanted another six months to finish the rest of the team's training. As it was he didn't know if they were prepared for what they would or could face.

He stepped up to a small frozen pond, created by the two powered beings. He knew one was Scott Summers; he had kept tabs on Xavier since they parted after all, but the other one was a mystery. He looked around at the boulders and debris that had fallen onto the field of white around him. "It does not matter if they are ready or not." He eventually said with a sigh, kneeling down as he pulled a laminated business card from his pocket.

The card was white on the back side and on the front was a blue normally associated with sapphires. The bulk of one face of it was covered with the word 'MAX' in large golden, rectangular letters with lines making the top of the letters look slightly thinner than the bottom. A stripe, the same rectangular gold, underlined the word. In the same font the word 'FORCE', in ruby red and half the size of 'MAX' was set right on top of the line. Lastly under 'FORCE' in smaller white letters was the phrase 'METAHUMAN ACTION XTREME'. He set the card on the frozen pond before stepping back off of it. "Magneto... You forced my hand. God help me if they are not ready." He said as he held a hand out.

As if summoned by the gesture a flat vortex appeared before him like a door. He strode through it, vanishing from the arctic and reappearing in an office in downtown Bayville. It was furnished with oak chairs and shelves, a large matching desk, stained a dark tone in the back near a wall spanning window, a label reading 'Richard Maxwell, CEO' on the front of it. He walked over to the desk, pressing a button on a machine. "Parson."

"Yes, Mr. Maxwell?" A cultured voice answered as the Richard stripped off the snow suit, tossing it aside and finally baring his handsome face with strong features and short brown hair that hung down no further than an inch over his forehead.

"Tell the team to meet me in the war room at four. I have an announcement to make." Richard replied, seating himself at the desk.

"Yes sir. I shall have them ready, as well as some refreshments."

"Thank you Parson." He said as he pressed the button again before leaning back into his seat. "I hope we're ready for this..."


	2. Chapter I

A note to those who's OCs were chosen: Their costumes were changed ranging from slightly to a fair bit, mostly for practicality reasons.

Also, a link to the MAX Force Logo is available to be viewed in my profile.

Chapter I: Activate MAX

At just before three thirty Richard Maxwell opened up another vortex, stepping through it and reappearing in front of a large mansion on the outskirts of Bayville. It, in many ways, resembled Xavier's mansion where he learned to control his own powers. It bore white walls large windows, a massive lawn. The roof was tiled black and the road leading to it was paved with stone blocks. Much like Xavier's the road formed a circle before the door, a large fountain at the center of a roman centurion, sword and shield in hand. He looked up at it for a moment before walking by and into the house through the glass doors.

"Didn't bother with the limo I see." He heard, looking over to the kitchen area as Parson emerged. Samuel Parson stood just under six foot one and looked to be about fifty years old. He bore a black, trimmed moustache and the top of his head was bald leaving a ring of black and greying hair. He stood in a dignified manner with a tray of tea, cups and crackers and cheese in one hand while wearing a standard butlers uniform.

Richard had honestly thought that if the man ever decided to audition for the role of Alfred in a Batman move he would dismissed as being 'too perfect' for the role. He was also one of three non-metahumans that would operate with the team directly, in this case as support and homecare. He could imagine Ororo would be taking a similar role with Xavier's newer students.

"I was in a bit of a hurry." He replied as he walked to the large stairs that went from the back of the room to the near middle of it as Parson followed. "The plan needs to be accelerated."

"Sergeant Smith seems to think the require a bit more time." Parson replied as the turned at the top of the stairs, walking towards the boys wing. If he had turned left he would have gone down a hall where all the boys had their rooms. As it was it walked straight ahead, stopping at framed picture of the Roman Legionaries stomping towards an opposing army under the command of Julius Caesar. Under the frame was a black plaque with brass letters emerging from it, with a single phrase on it in Latin: Qui Audet Adipiscitur.

He who dares, wins.

He pressed his thumb to the middle of the bottom of the plaque before speaking. "Dare to win."

"Voice recognition confirmed. Welcome Richard Maxwell." A computerized voice replied as the wall hinged up from the top until it settled on the ceiling, showing a short steel hallway that the two passed through before getting to an elevator. It was a clever system that Sergeant Paul Smith came up with. Until a recognized user spoke the passage way would not open. And if just anyone pressed the plaque in the right spot there was no lights or sounds as confirmation that pressing there activated anything.

Xavier's had... a button.

It's a shame that only he and Logan noted the downsides to that.

Stepping into the elevator Richard spoke again. "War Room. Training Room." He let off as the elevator started down. The short ride was only four stories down into the earth. The doors opened, permitting Parson to walk out towards the War Room in question. Soon after he had left the doors closed and the elevator continued moving downwards.

The underground levels were connected with the elevator and hidden stairwells as the only means of exit in order to trap any intruder that found their way there. Each of the major facilities was on it's own level with at least half a foot of steel and a foot of solid rock separating them. Although the above ground levels had security that was normal to a mansion that a rich man lived in, the underground levels were much higher as it contained almost all of MAX Force's sensitive equipment and vehicles. The air ducts were too small for even a baby to crawl through and the elevators could be disabled at anytime. The stairwells were kept hidden as to provide no escape for an intruder but allow any of his charges to escape if needed.

The elevator stopped a scant moment after allowing him to step off into a hall. Taking a side door he walked up a short flight of stairs and into a sprawling ops center. The training room was underneath it, and he heavily resisted the urge to call it a 'Danger Room.' But for all intents and purposes that's exactly what it was, a copy of the Danger Room. It had been tweaked and upgraded several times, and he assumed Xavier had done the same to his, as he walked to the two people at the controls of the massive room.

The first was a stocky man with a large untamed moustache and stubble across his chin and cheeks. His eyebrows bore a few scars from his boxing training and his features seemed flattened somewhat, as if he had been smacked with a board too often. His hair was a light brown and kept in a neat buzz cut. This was Sergeant Paul Smith, often called 'The Sarge' by his charges. He was a fourteen year veteran of the Las Vegas SWAT Team until his unit was sent to clear out a hotel that had been occupied by terrorists, the identity of which were still unknown. They had long since left the building, but left a number of traps. One of the younger SWAT members tripped one, but it went unnoticed and was set on a delay. Sixty seconds later, Smith was marching by seeking clues when it went off.

It was a miracle that the man survived the blast, let alone the fact he clung to life afterwards. He was taken to the hospital immediately and under the care of the surgeons survived, although with his left leg obliterated. Without his leg he was unfit for further active duty in a job that demanded physical prowess. He was offered a desk job but quit after four months deciding to find something else a man with a prosthetic leg and cane could do. Maxwell approached him, and offered him a job to train his team up. The man was a little leery at first, but warmed up to the idea once Maxwell explained his ideology. The former SWAT officer was also down right ecstatic to see the training room's capabilities and used the technology to be the Drill Sergeant the Marines would envy.

The other was Jessie Sims, a stunt pilot and former charter operator. She used the stunt flying as a way to earn money to keep her small business afloat, but with the economy in a downturn it was hard for her to find work. When Maxwell had learned that the woman with the serious face, shoulder length red hair and green eyes could pilot any and all helicopters and planes known to man, at the age of twenty seven no less, he went about hiring her. Jessie was the pilot of the MAX Force's own helicopter, the Impact, and she loved it. Whether she wanted to do stunt flying or precision landing the Impact could do it and more. She used the call sign of Skyway in training operations, and when the real operations begun.

"How's it coming?" Richard asked as he moved to stand between the two.

"They are getting better." Jessie said, leaning back in her seat, her proud, large breasts being pushed out by the simple action, her tank top displaying a good dose of cleavage.

Neither man looked. They saw it plenty of times before. Paul let off a sigh and shook his head. "They're getting better, but only Spartan is ready for anything." He said as he watched.

Down below in the massive room the six teenagers in simple black and red uniforms fought the training robots. The robots were six feet in height with a build similar to a football player's. The left arms ended in a gun shaped like a grenade launcher and shot blasts of energy ranging from harmless to enough force to punch a hole in tank armour, depending on who was being fired at and who was in the line of fire.

At the center of it, barking orders was Reese Guarder, codename Spartan. He was the first one that started training at the mansion and it showed. He was able to create energy constructs, fashioning tools and weapons. For the first few months these abilities tired him out quickly but as his powers matured he found himself able to use them longer and longer. Now even in dragged out brawls he could fight with an assortment of weapons, but favoured a large round shield and three foot leaf shaped sword based off of a Spartan's shield and xiphos sword. Because of this he picked up Spartan as a codename and he did his best to live up to the name, blocking blasts with the shield as he charged before shifting weight to lob off the robot's head with the blade before stepping past the machine and smashing a second with the edge of the shield.

Reese was ready, and was the leader the team needed, without question. The others however, needed work. Avalon Bronte, also Ava, codename Tempest was the unofficial next in line in the chain of command after Spartan. She was a weather manipulator, much like his old friend and teammate Storm, but had yet to learn to control weather patterns like rain and snow. She did know, however, to control wind and lightning, although she still didn't have the power or control of Storm. She had the potential to match the older woman though, however as he watched as she flew around, zapping robots with lightning.

Well, 'fly' have been too bold a word. It was more like 'directional levitation.' She _could_ in fact fly, but her inexperience with her powers showed and she was as prone as crash as stay in the air. He winced as he saw her send a blast of air at one robot which was sent sailing into another one of the students, flattening her. A bellowed apology was uttered before she was shot from the air, landing to the floor on her back.

The other girl, Reina Chauntelle, alias Blondie, possibly the worst superhero name ever chosen, squirmed under the robot's weight before slipping out, a large tear along the leg, but the skin under it showing no signs of damage. The girl was, put simply, invulnerable. Nothing he knew of could scratch her, let alone cause her harm. And he had tested her limitations with several methods, up to and including making her jump out of a helicopter, one thousand feet over the ground.

The only reason she wasn't able to walk away from the landing is she, somehow, wound up waist deep into the dirt.

Invincibility was, however, her only power. She was as strong, agile and fast as a normal girl of her age and exercise routine could be. She would be able to take the blows Superman could, but not return them. On the plus side she had been a prodigy gymnast since age nine, and while he was appalled at the horrendous conditions her father worked her through he couldn't deny the results. She had barely dusted herself off before flipping over some debris and smashing her fist into a robotic face, forcing it back. She may have had the strength of a normal sixteen year old girl, but when you didn't need to worry about hurting your fists you could put more force behind the blows without hurting yourself. She leapt back at the robot's counter punch only to wind up being stuck by a green blast and being propelled into another robot.

The large youth that sent out the blast winced appropriately. Alex Rogers, code name Dynamo, was a powerful energy using metahuman who could turn calorie intake into pure, raw energy. The main form this power took was destructive blasts of concussive force that could range from knocking a man over to knocking a tank over, in addition to a rapid healing factor, slightly less powerful than Wolverine's actually. He had worked closely with the tall teenager since his arrival and encouraged him to see if he could manifest his power in other ways. So far he had come up with two new abilities, the ability to reinforce his own body, boosting his strength and resistance to super human levels, and generating blasts from his feet.

Dynamo, however, had a few drawbacks. He had to eat truckloads at a time to maintain his energy and his heightened metabolism may have heightened his healing abilities but it also hampered his ability to sleep. At the very least his powers seemed to keep him from being able to physically cope with the lack of sleep, he never seem sleep deprived, and he seemed to cope mentally. Right now his two major weaknesses in a fight were his endurance and his flight abilities. The endurance was something that he had dealt with in his youth as well. When Xavier first came to him making a vortex from one end of the mansion to the other would leave him panting. Now he could go from China to England, Madagascar, Texas, Japan then back home while only breaking a sweat. Once Alex's powers matured he was sure the endurance issue would be worked out.

The flight issue, meanwhile had two major problems; the first was he was propelling himself like a rocket and controlled as well as a human-shaped rocket would, which was poorly. He was more used to crashing than landing, and that was on a good day. The second was that Alex 'Dynamo' Rogers was afraid of heights.

It seemed almost comedic when found he could fly; he rose up over the house before screaming out loud and came down, crashing into the pool. He had worked with the young man over the fear, but it was slow going.

Slow as in a snail crawling uphill over a stream of molasses in winter.

Over to the side an African American youth checked over Tempest, pulling her to her feet with one hand, brandishing a gun-like weapon in the other. Cassandra 'Cassie' Blake went under the name Electra and was a tactile-cyberpath; she could interact and control computers through contact. She was also a highly, even hyper, intelligent young woman with a knack for technology, such as what she was carrying. The device looked like a black with green trim Ingram Mac-Ten machine pistol with a suppressor, only with a suppressor part that folded out like an umbrella with metal webbing connecting the parts. She aimed it at a robot and pulled the trigger which sent a cascade of sonic energy into the robot, shattering it apart.

Everyone but her called it the Sound Gun. She called it the Sonic Resonance Wavelength Displacer, but everyone else called it the less complex Sound Gun. It had a number effects ranging from a concussive blast of sonic energy to creating waves of sonic distortion that would cause dizziness and fainting. And he was sure there were other effects she had yet to show off. Once Ava was back on her feet she shot at another robot, sending it flying into another as a bladed tendril of darkness sliced past were the training creation used to be.

Rounding off MAX Force was Conrad Wolfe, or Shadow. His powers were odd, complex and simply dark. Shadow had control over the forces of darkness and shadows, and could form them into armour and weapons but couldn't manage the complexity that Spartan could. Shadow was able to make objects on a larger scale than Spartan could, such as cages, but was dependant of drawing shadows from around him for those constructs. Often he would just use his own shadow to form weapons or, if he was in midair or had the light shining in such a way to disallow the creation of shadows, something the training room could do, he still had a limited ability to create his constructs. He could also teleport from one shadow to another, but it was one of his more taxing abilities depending on what or who he took with him and how far.

Shadow let off a roar as he formed claws over his fingers, charging at another robot, tackling it and mauling it with the talons until a blast knocked him off. He shook his head, trying to shake off the impact as the robot walk forwards, raising it's weapon. Anything it was going to do was cut off by a purple arrow made from energy that pierced through the head, disabling it and toppling over.

"You okay, Shadow?" Spartan asked as he made and notched another arrow into his constructed bow, sending it into the chest of another robot.

"Yeah, fine. Thanks for asking." Shadow shot back as he got up, groaning. "Nothing injured but my pride."

"Join the club." Dynamo replied as he ducked under a jab before punching the offending automaton's head off. He panted lightly as Tempest sent a blast of thunder out, blowing apart another as Spartan looked around.

"I don't see anymore. Anyone else have a contact?" He asked as everyone gave a negative response.

"**Trainings cut short for today. Maxwell wants you all in the war room."** Sarge's voice bellowed over the speakers.

"That can't be good." Blondie said as she walked over. "He never cuts training short."

"Well we won't know till we get there." Spartan replied as he walked to the massive doors that opened, dispelling his bow. "Hit the showers and let's get going."

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

"Holy cow..." The brown haired youth let out, leaning over the front seat of the car to get a better view. "Man, Xavier must be loaded."

"He doesn't flaunt it as much as you'd think." Ororo replied as she glanced at the young man as she drove him to the mansion. Bobby Drake would be the newest arrival of a rapidly expanding roster of mutants they would teach. At the end of the last school year Xavier had thought that they were prepared to take on even more students than they had. It was true that their six senior students, Scott Summer, Jean Grey, Rouge, Kitty Pride, Evan Daniels and Kurt Wagner, needed further development with their own powers, but he felt that he would need to get these new mutants the attention and training they needed.

Anyone of them could expose mutants to the world at large. Tabitha Smith, in particular, was used by her own father to commit petty crimes and developed into an outwardly cheerful, but inwardly broken, individual. Each of them needed help and, ready or not, Xavier's Mansion was open to them so they could learn. Pulling up to the front doors she parked, exiting the car and looking out to see Jamie and Rahne play fetch, with Rahne turning back and forth from her wolf form. She hoped with all her heart that it would be years before they were discovered by mankind. These children deserved a chance for happiness while they could.

She only feared what an unprepared world would think of them.

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

"You wanted to see us, sir?" Reese asked as he and the team walked in. Richard nodded once and gestured to the table, indicating they should sit down. The room was circular and could hold almost thirty people. The walls were, like all the lower level walls, steel with a few workstations. At the center was a three dimensional projector around which was a large metal table, shaped into a half circle. When not in use the projector displayed the MAX Force logo, spinning slowly in place in the middle of the room. Across the table Richard Maxwell sat, on a standard size, but still metal desk that they jokingly called the throne.

Richard looked each of them over as they sat down. Reese stood at six feet and was, by this point, the blue eyed son he never had. He was the first student he took on three years ago as a personal test to see if he was ready for the responsibility of managing a team of young metahumans while also forging him into a leader that could command MAX Force through the worst the world could throw at them. He bore a handsome, if slightly boyish face with short, kept hair with two bangs that framed his face. He could never recall them being out of place. His clothing was fairly normal; blue jeans, a red tank top, black and white sneakers and his watch. He was visibly athletic and muscled, the years of training showing fruit.

Ava was about five-four, grey eyes and had hair the colour of fine mocha with streaks in pink that were caused by her powers. She had tried dying it, repeatedly, but the dye would only cover for an hour before coming off and leaving a mess around her shoulders and back. It reached the middle of her back with bangs on either side of her pretty and attractive face, coupled with pouty lips. She wore it in a few styles, but preferred it straight as it was. She had a healthy bust, maybe a large b cup or small c cup, and was not shy about letting the world know. He half expected that, if she could get away with it, she'd run around town streaking for the sake of streaking.

Okay, maybe not, but she was a rarity in the world of teenage girls; a young woman who not only looked good, but knew it with no, to his knowledge, body issues. The training she underwent took a girl with an already good figure into a better defined one. She had on one of her belly baring, single strap tops, blue being the colour of the week, a pair of tight skinny jeans and grey motorcycle boots that went half way up her shins and her leather belt had a lightning bolt on the buckle. A pair of silver hoop earrings came down from her ears and her fingers had a series of white gold rings with various coloured jewels set in them.

Alex was six-four, easily the tallest of the lot, with a face that was a tad wide but still showed handsome features with bright green eyes. He was built, as Ava once said, like a brick that grew legs and arms. Wide shoulders, a barrel chest and a waist that was almost as wide as his chest. He was by no means fat, or even looked overweight, but there was no question that he was simply _big_. He also had the muscles to reaffirm that, _no_; there wasn't much, if any, fat on his frame. His own blonde hair fell back to his shoulders, parting slightly in the middle. He wore a pair of black sneakers, blue jeans and a black t-shirt with the words 'Large And In Charge!' plastered on the front in bold letters. He was a bit more laid back than the other students, but it hid a hardworking ethic.

Cassie herself, meanwhile, was a five-four, brown eyed, black haired, girl whose figure had a cup breasts at best and hips that flared out just enough to be noticeable from her waist and skin the colour of light chocolate. Her hair went to the middle of her back and was a series of braids. She had a pretty face with high wide lips and perky nose. She had slipped into a pair of grey tennis shoes, baggy jeans and red shirt that hung loose with two studs earrings in each ear. If you took more than a moment to look at her, however, you would notice a sharp, intelligent mind full of ideas and inventions that are yet to be made.

Reina, sometimes called Rayn, was, like the other girls, five-four and bore straight, shoulder length platinum blonde, greyish blue eyes with a petite frame and sizeable bust, just smaller than Ava's. She was toned from her gymnast years and the training he put her though had improved on it just slightly. She was equally as pretty and beautiful as Ava but where Ava's look was sexy, Rayn's was cute. She kept a small set of silver cuffs on her left wrist, a white tank top, deep blue miniskirt and shin covering leather boots with a two inch heel to them.

Lastly was Conrad, still tall, but the shortest of the boys at an inch under six feet. He showed off a bit more muscle then Reese, but only in the upper body, not that his legs were anything to scoff at either. His hair was a couple inches long and kept shaggy, but otherwise clean. Of all the students he had Conrad was the only one with a physical mutation; his eyes were black. Pure black with no pupil or whites, just all black. He gave him a holowatch to help hide it, making him appear as a blue eyed youth, but also gave him contacts that would also hide his eyes, in case the holowatch failed. He wasn't the cheeriest of guys, but not depressed either. Although he was the team loner there was no question that he was dependable and, once you got past the shell, quite personable. He wore a black t-shirt with a white skull pattern on the sleeves and blue jeans with black sneakers.

"Hey! Food!" Alex laughed out as he sat down, a cup of tea and snacks before them. Alex's spot had the lions share, but given his powers it was appropriate.

"I'm sure you're all wondering what's going on." Richard began as everyone sat down. Reese and Ava began to use the food and drink before them while Alex all but devoured the cheese and crackers. The others waited, focusing attention on him. "I need to explain recent events that involved Magneto and the X-Men." He said, Reese pausing as setting the tea cup down, looking a bit more attentive.

He respected Xavier's privacy so he had controlled what information they all had. They knew that an old friend of his was training a team, much like themselves, in the event that metahumans needed defending somewhere. The identity of the 'friend', Xavier, and his X-Men were kept from them. He explained it as privacy, but the real reason was he would be sending them all to Bayville High soon and if they interacted with the X-Men he didn't need them discomforted by their own knowledge.

Magneto, however, he was freer with in terms of knowledge. He had to be, given that they would likely run into him sooner or later. They knew his powers, ideology and what lengths he could go to. He knew that name alone would gain their attention.

"I'll be blunt. Magneto attempted a plan, recently, that would be a prelude and build up to an attack. Likely, I imagine, a terrorist style attack, or maybe worse. I don't know, and I can't be sure of the lengths, or depths, he'll dive to in order to drive home his supremacist agenda." Richard added. Magneto may have held himself up as a messiah, a hero figure of mutant kind like some twisted George Washington, but Magneto's rambling, of what he heard, indicated that he planned to take control of the world and place himself as it's leader. "Long story short, Magneto was further in his plans than I expected. This means we have little time for our own plan."

"Wait..." Reese spoke up, raising a hand. "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean we are forced to tone down training. MAX Force is, as of this moment, and active crime fighting unit." He said, looking at all the students. Each of them had a look of shock on their faces. Alex had a half eaten cracker hanging on a lip, Reese's eyes were wide open while Ava slumped into her seat. Rayn's head tilted to the side while both Conrad's and Cassie's mouths hung open. "Yes. I know. But we have no choice. We need to go active before Magneto can do anymore damage."

"Yeah, but..." Reese spoke up, waving his hands a bit as he tried to phrase his thoughts correctly.

"Are we ready?" Rayn injected as Alex loudly chewed on his cracker before swallowing.

"I'll be honest. I really, _really_ wished I had longer to train you all, but forces beyond our control are forcing us to act. I have confidence in all of you. You've proven to be intelligent, brave and capable. I only hope you prove me right; that this is possible. It will not be easy. It will not be safe. But you can do this." He said a he pulled out a tray from under his desk. On it was six flat devices, less than half an inch thick, and two and a half inches by four and a half inches. He walked around to each of them, passing a device to each of the teenagers. "This is a small little device that I and Cassie whipped up awhile ago, the MAX Activator. Cassie?"

"Right." Cassie said, smiling as she looked over the device. "We developed the MAX Activator based on recent breakthroughs sub-dimensional teleportation technology Maximum Corps has made. This device will, on command, access a sub-dimensional pocket, then will scan the user and swap the outerwear of the user with a stored uniform. The energy output from the process will hide anything going on as the teleportation effect undresses then redresses the user, using built in scanners to make sure the clothing appears correctly and in place with the needed attachments and accessories. In addition it will provide protection from most forms of thermal, radial, psionic and-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Alex shouted out, waving his hands around. "Can I get any of this in _English_!"

"It will instantly change you into your uniforms and provide protection from scans." Richard summed up as the students looked them over. Flipping it over Reese noticed a black back with a touch screen and a few buttons. Pressing a button he noticed it lit up, displaying a home screen for a modern phone. "As you may notice it's disguised as a cell phone, and yes all your information has been moved to them. They are similar to a phone made by a company owned by Maximum Corps. Unlike them however the silver cover will flip over." He said as each of the students slid the cover up, then over to the opposite side. "The center button will deploy the hooks. You can slip it into your belt or the front of pants or skirts." He explained as they each pressed it, either end deploying out as a pair of hooks. Reese stood up stepping back, slipping into the front of his pants. "Lastly squeeze it's top and bottom while it's in place. It has a DNA scanner built in, so no one else can use them. The uniform each one has is based on the ideas you originally gave me, with modifications as needed."

Reese nodded once, squeezing as directed. A halo of light appeared around him, centering on the device as the light split in two, one going up the other going down. As they moved along the clothes changed to a uniform. It was sapphire blue and covered head to toe save the eyes and under the nose to the chin. Brass covered plates of armour covered the suit, with hexagonal plates covering the chest and then smaller plates extending down to the bottom of his abs. A codpiece covered his groin and buttocks while still allowing movement. The top, back and outside of his thighs were covered in another plate that was a stretched out hexagon, wrapped about the leg while the shins were covered back to front with a hexagonal kneepad. The foot was covered as well with the hexagons again appearing on the sides of his ankles.

His arms were covered in a matching manner, his upper arms like his thighs and his forearms like his shins. The back of his hands bore the hexagon style plates while each hand had the stretched out versions, a plate on each knuckle. The back was covered much like the back with thinner plates at the top. Lastly was a helmet, based on a Spartan's helm without the crest. He looked over himself, noticing one other piece, an armoured belt with the device at the front, but the MAX Force logo on the front.

"How does it feel?" Conrad asked as Reese rolled his shoulders then weaved his upper body about, getting a feel of it.

"Lighter than it looks." He said, as lifted the helmet off his head. "And comfortable."

"It's Light Kevlar." Richard replied. "It's bulletproof up to a fifty calibre. The plates are a carbon based compound that offers further protection against blunt force trauma. Since he's in close range combat all the time and his powers offer no protection he needs better amour, even if he suffers a little in agility. It was made as light as possible to assure he could still move quickly though. Ava?"

"Right." The girl said, stepping back and attaching the device before activating. "I almost feel like saying It's Morphin' Time." She said as the halos appeared and separated, swapping her clothes. She now had a sleeveless shirt of the Light Kevlar, light grey with a matching two inch thick cuff that attached at the front and back of the shirt and wrapped over the arms, a blue lightning bolt covering the front of the cuff. Each hand was covered in a short, cuffed black glove, and a grey choker with a blue jewel set at the front. Grey tights went into knee high boots with motorcycle heels, a pair of loose blue short-shorts over her with a black belt about her waist, the device attached to it. A black mask was over her eyes, wrapping about her face and under her hair, with the edges beside the eyes upturned, her earrings being removed from her ears. Her hair also was changing to a vibrant blue.

"I took the design and incorporated some elements while adding more cloth. The Light Kevlar is a protective layer that does little if it doesn't cover somewhat." He added as Ava shrugged. "It also has a holo-projector in the collar, which changes her hair to a solid blue. Her hair is rather unique, and would be identifiable in a crowd." He added as Alex activated his own, the halo appearing and splitting.

When it was done he was in a single piece, black motorcycle outfit with forest green trimming about the waist, shoulders, elbows, knees with a green belt which the MAX Activator hung from. The image of a green fist with energy being forced from the grasp was on the chest. The gloves were black and fingerless but another, thinner material covered the fingers. A mask covering most of his upper face appeared as well, wrapping securely about the head as loose collar fitted about the neck, his hair turning black.

"I found a material to cover your fingers with that won't interfere with your power, since you kept complaining about generating blasts with normal gloves. This will stop any fingerprints from being left." Richard added. "You also have a holo-projector for your hair, further obscuring your identity."

Cassie stood up next, activating her own, letting the light change her clothing. She was left in a black, form fitting uniform with a neon green skirt and matching pads on the shoulders, knees and elbows. Matching gloves appeared on her hands and shin high boots on her feet. A holster with her Sound Gun was at her right hip, a dark yellow belt about her waist with green pouches on them, the device at the center. She wore a green mask that wrapped about her eyes, her braids wrapped up into one, long braid. On each side of her head over her ears was a small green device with a green visor connecting the two devices over her eyes.

"Again, gloves for fingerprints and boots to not step on something and leave blood." Richard explained, and then continued before Cassie could explain her preferences for not wearing gloves or boots. "The visor you have on also has a scanner and Heads Up Display as well as a computer with a wireless satellite uplink to provide data and information. The pouches, also, contains various weapons and devices you've made for combat."

Rayn moved back next, turning on the device. Once the device was done she was in a silver corset and matching skirt with aquamarine blue stitching, forming elaborate patterns with a black belt about the waist, holding the MAX Activator. A cropped, black leather jacket also appeared on her torso while her face had a wide, domino mask with thin straps wrapping about the head. Leather boots that reached up to mid shin appeared on each foot while her hands were covered in black motorcycle gloves with silver trim.

"Again, fingers covered." Richard said as Rayn nodded. "Unlike the others, you have only the corset and skirt made of Light Kevlar. The fact is you are more durable than anything I can put you in." He said as Conrad activated his MAX Activator, breathing out as the halos past over him.

Once they were gone he was in a black body suit with a silver S on the chest with bladed curves. The mask covered his entire head and face and was white from the chin up save the eyes which were black as well. The MAX Activator hung at the front by a barely visible black belt. After a moment he willed a hood of pure darkness to appear about his head, framing the white face in darkness.

"Pretty well what you asked for. Save the white face and bladed S. Those were too good to pass up." Richard said as Conrad nodded.

"I like 'em." He said as Richard stood in front of the projected logo.

"Remember, in costume you only go by code names. You are all super heroes. Your goal is not only to fight crooks and villains. It is to inspire hope. To inspire courage. To inspire imagination. You are, each of you, capable individuals. Alone you are good. Together, however, you are better. Together you are legends, titans and champions! You are MAX Force. And as of now, we are active." Richard said as he moved to his desk, typing a command into it. "And now that we're active I've turned on the Mission Alert System and Service, or MASS. It will scan news channels, police and military chatter and other media outlets looking for information on what we'll be fighting. Chances are we'll be moving out sooner than later.

"For now you have the rest of the day off. If anything on the MASS pings I'll contact you through the MAX Activators. You'll need time to digest all this."

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

"I found it." The woman said as she looked over the information in her hand. Her green hair was short, covering her right eye and curled out at the bottom. She wore a neat, form fitting trench coat that was a deep green with a matching shirt and pants. A brass belt buckle with a skull emblem was at her waist with three tentacles reaching out to each side.

"Our little collectable?" A voice, accented with a tint of German replied as she spoke. "Really? Fury has hidden for twenty years and we've not a peep of it until now. Where is it?"

"A large safety deposit box near the top floor of Bayville's Bank of Valour, at the fifty first floor." She said, setting the papers down as she looked at the communication device on her desk. The screen held the surprised image of a bald, older man with a scar under his left eye and a monocle in his right. He blinked a few times before speaking again.

"Are you sure Viper?"

"Quite. And in retrospect, it's pure genius on Fury's part." She said, crossing her legs. "We assumed this entire time that he'd have it at some heavily guarded, out of the way, military complex or on his Helicarrier. Why would we think that he would hide it in a, by our standards, insecure, public, and easy to access spot?"

"Ah, I see." The man said, his left hand coming up to stroke his chin. "He hid it in the best place of all; where we would never otherwise look. Excellent work Viper."

"I have ordered Captain Garron to lead an expedition." She continued. "It will be noisy, but fast and efficient. By the time Fury knows what's going on, we'll be long gone."

"Ah, they call him Captain Guarantee, yes?" The man ask, smiling. "As in a Guarantee for a job well done?"

"The same." She said, smirking. This was the optimal plan. Finding the right box would take time. The deposit boxes in question required two keys and two pass codes to access, and in addition they were supposedly unmarked as to obscure which box was which. It would take time to do it silent and clean, hacking into the boxes, and if Fury even got a whiff of what they were doing he'd snatch what they were after in a blink. An attack would be loud, messy and public, but they could get a staff member to lead them to the box in question with a little gun-to-head diplomacy. "Do not worry Baron von Strucker, the job is all but good as done."

"As you say, Viper. I look forwards to good news." He said as the screen went dark. Viper smiled as she uncrossed and reclosed her legs before she leaned back.

Hail Hydra.


	3. Chapter II

Notes...

Cloudy-TheNightMareQueen: Well, here's more.

BitchAmI/lordoftoast: One update, ready.

Ember Ice: Well I'm sure if she's ever under fire I'm sure she'll enjoy covered boobs.

Blue-Red-Ninja: Quite welcome. I thought they would add a nice contrast and some colour.

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

Chapter II: Trial By Fire

It had been a week since Richard had turned MAX Force from a team in training to an active fighting squad, but nothing of note had appeared on the MASS yet. He wanted their first mission to be big; not for publicity but for their confidence. If they could get past one, just one, tough mission then they know they were ready. He had faith that they would be able to pull it off. As it was the mood at the MAX Mansion, as the kids called it, was a sombre one.

With the team now active they had to face the possibility of injury or death while fighting for a cause they believed in. It was actually a good thing to see them take the situation as seriously as they did, he just hoped that the tension and stress building up didn't hamper their fighting spirits or abilities. Each had taken to coping in his or her own way with the stress and mood.

Reese had pulled off the various weapons that hung from the wall of his room and swung them about, not training but getting a feel for them and what a warrior wielding each one would be thinking as they fought. Ava, meanwhile, was working on her bike, adjusting nuts and bolts and cleaning parts of her Harley Davidson pink and black V-Rod Muscle. She had proven to have a knack for mechanics and while he doubted she'd ever work at an auto repair shop she had proven to be able to fix the machines with the right tools.

Alex divided his time between tuning and playing his guitar and going to the kitchen to cook up something. With his powers and his need to eat large amounts of food he had trained himself, with some oversight from Parson, to be a good chef. Last he saw of the young man he was cooking up Sweet and Hot, Chinese style chicken. All he knew was that Tabasco was in the sauce.

That was a little spicy for his tastes.

Cassie, meanwhile, was inventing something in her room. What it was and what it would do, he didn't know, only that it had the appearance of soda can on the outside, and a metric ton of circuitry and wires on the inside. Rayn was in her own room with Celine Dion's music blaring and Rayn's own voice singing the lyrics.

In all honesty, to call what Rayn did 'signing' was inappropriate. It was closer to a warbling sound a cat would make after being run over. How was it metahumanly _possible_ for a girl with such a sweet sounding voice to sing so _awful_?

Conrad, meanwhile, was alternating between playing video games and going on his computer. Richard was quite sure that Conrad had a stash of pictures of women on his computer in various states of undress, but he was also sure that Reese and Alex had similar pictures as well. Hell, he'd be damned if the girl's didn't have a stash of men in undress on their hard drives too.

God, was he ever as big a bundle of hormones at that age? He forgot.

He was shaking his head just as a beep from the MASS came in. He looked over the information and frowned deeply before picking up his phone, dialling in a number that would send a voice message to each of the MAX Activators. "We have something. Get to the Impact, information will be delivered on route."

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

The hanger bay at the MAX Mansion had a number of vehicles for the team to use to get around in. They had six Kawasaki Ninja One Thousand motorcycles, all upgraded with better engines, suspension, tires and then further customized. They were all painted black, but boasted on board holo-projectors which, while active, would turn them all a sapphire blue with the MAX Force logo on the front and on the licence plates. That was in addition to nitro boosters and on board computer systems. Maxwell called them the MAX Interceptors, but the team just called them the MAX Ninjas.

Also in the ground fleet were two Mitsubishi Lancer Sportback Ralliarts. Like the bikes these had been upgraded with more powerful engines, better tires, suspension, nitro and more. Both boasted an on board computer system as powerful as anything the US Military had and let the cars be used as a mobile command center. They were a painted a sporty red but, like the bikes, had a holo-projector that turned them blue with the MAX Force logo on the hood, trunk, sides and licence plates in addition to built in weapon systems. Maxwell called them the MAX Racers, but once again the team had a preferred name for the cars; MAX Lancers.

The air fleet for MAX Force consisted of, currently, one aircraft. Unlike the ground fleet, which were modified vehicles specifically chosen and upgraded to be able to blend into normal traffic to throw off pursuers, the Impact was custom built for the team's needs.

Based off the V-Twenty Two Osprey, the Impact was a VTOL capable, tilt-rotor aircraft that could operate as a long range airplane or an agile helicopter. Compared to the Osprey the Impact was smaller but boasted heavier armour and engines that were even more powerful. It could seat eighteen people comfortably and had a built in projector that allowed it to serve as a mobile briefing room. It could, if pushed, cross the county in under nine hours.

The Impact was also armed with twin thirteen millimetre cannons on the nose, a retractable thirty millimetre Gatling cannon on the belly near the nose and a rocket pod under each of the wings, each boasting nineteen rockets, all of which meant that if called upon Skyway could make her presence known in any fight.

In addition the weapons manufacturing arms of Maximum Corps, with some ingenuity from Cassie who used technology from the holo-projectors, had led to the development of the Full Cloak System, or FCS.

With the FCS up the Impact was invisible to conventional and advanced radar, in addition to being made mostly invisible thanks to the projectors. An outline of the Impact could be made out, but flying by at over the speed of sound and over the height of buildings meant you probably wouldn't see it anyway. The FCS was mostly for discreet landings, in which it's sound muffling effect kicked in making the roar of the engines sound like the gentle purr of a kitten.

The impact itself was coated the sapphire blue that would be the team's main colour, the logo on the belly and sides.

It was also soaring above the buildings right now, cloaked from view, Skyway manning the controls. Maxwell had given her a MAX Activator as well, mostly so she would know when the team needed her, but also to give her a flight suit on command as needed. It was a tight, formfitting, military green, jumpsuit that zipped up at the front, only with said zipper just under the bust line, showing off her cleavage and threatening to show off the matching green bra under it. Matching gloves with a yellow band at the wrists were on the hands and knee length green boots with yellow trim on the feet. Her face was covered in a wrap about yellow mask with a green helmet over her head, the black tinned visor showing a heads up display on the inside. She deftly guided the craft to Bayville's Bank of Valour as the projector in the back lit up, showing a scale model of the building.

"Okay team, here's what we have." Maxwell spoke as the team of costumed superheroes looked at the building in the passenger compartment of the Impact. "This is The Bank of Valour. It is considered one of the highest security banks in the country using both high and low tech means. Forty five minutes ago unknown attackers entered the building through the roof. No signs of a helicopter or aircraft were seen by any authority, so either they have stealth technology or found another way onto the building. Currently how they accessed the building is unclear." He said as the view shifted, enlarging the building, cutting off the lower half and focusing on the upper seventeen floors of the sixty story building. The forty fifth story was highlighted with a green outline as the virtual walls peeled away.

"This is the forty fifth floor. Near the center of this floor is a major security hub for the building. We know that at least a dozen men, all armed, stormed the floor and took control. How many are still on the floor is unknown, but we have to assume there are even more men in the building." He said before the forty third floor was highlighted, the stairs glowing green. "We do know that the stairs around the forty third floor was destroyed. Elevators have also been disabled, hindering access to the upper floors, if you came in from ground level.

"Expect resistance at the roof." Maxwell continued as the view move to the top of the building. It was shaped like a three dimensional L with the long part on the bottom with glass windows along the top and an air vent in the middle. The smaller part of the L housed the roof access door. "My advice is to deploy on the highest part of the roof, then take the guards by surprise. Take them down fast enough and the rest won't know you're coming. Once done you'll need to take control of the security hub then sweep floor to floor until you clear them all out. Remember, follow Spartan and back him up. Spartan... The mission is yours. Good luck." Maxwell finished up before the feed cut off.

"Electra, give me a live feed. I want to see the building as we approach." Spartan said as the girl nodded, setting her hand on a control pad, the projector showing a small scale view of the city, the Impact soaring above it. "Good. Okay guys, listen up. You're all nervous. So am I. So here's how this will work. We are going to kick ass, take names, and save the day. We were trained to do this and I trust you all. We will get the job done, never doubt that."

**"Radar contact."** They heard, Skyway's voice cutting over the internal speakers.

"The attackers?" Spartan asked, his brow creasing under the helm as he thought about what this could be.

"**No. Two helicopters, both SWAT." **Skyway replied as the two aircraft came into view on the projector. The Impact was coming up to the building from the south while the two SWAT helicopters came in from the north. **"Looks like we're not the only heroes out here."**

"Well, maybe they can handle it then." Dynamo suggested, pointing to the helicopters. "I mean it'll give us more time to train." 

Spartan nodded a bit as he thought of what this would mean as the two SWAT vehicles came to a halt, hovering over the building. He was about to speak when an object flew up from the building, one of the helicopters rising up and to the side to avoid it as the other dived towards the other direction. Just as Spartan made it out to be a rocket propelled grenade, possibly designed for ground to air engagements, it had struck it's target, the one flying upwards. The machine blew apart, the tail removing itself completely before flying off, sailing and spinning past air before smashing into the other copter's blades. The propellers were destroyed, coming completely off the vehicle as the two SWAT craft dove towards the streets below behind the building and out of their view.

No one spoke right away. All they heard was the light beating of air as the Impact flew to the bank.

"Holy shit..." Shadow let off eventually. "They just... Everyone on those copters..."

"They... They didn't have a chance..." Blondie finished as Dynamo gulped.

"Oh man... This is the real deal guys..." He let off as Spartan gave a grim nod, standing up from his seat.

"It is real." Spartan said softly as he walked to the back where the ramp was. "That's why we're here. No one else dies today. Skyway! Bring us over and let's go!" He said smacking a button with his fist, the ramp lowering down. He gazed out of the craft, watching the city under the helicopter as the others walked up behind him, except in the case of Dynamo who crawled over to look out the side.

"Do we gotta?" He half asked, half whined before looking up at the team leader. "You know I hate heights..."

"Well today is as good a day as any to face your fears, Dynamo." Spartan replied as the craft lowered slowly.

"And you can fly if you fall, or did you forget?" Shadow piped as Dynamo glared over at him.

"That ain't flyin'! Just directed fallin'!"

"You fall up?" Shadow quipped.

"Quiet down, all of you." Spartan replied as the Impact lowered to position. "Let's move!" He called out, rushing out and jumping onto the roof, squatting down before moving to the edge. Shadow and Tempest followed suit, Electra and Blondie following, each crawling over. Dynamo gulped before turning about and crawling backwards off the ramp, holding onto it until he felt the building under his feet. Once he let go he crumpled onto his knees before crawling over to the others.

Spartan looked over the men on the building. They each carried an assault rifle of some description, he didn't recognize them but they didn't look cheap. They each wore a black Kevlar jacket with armoured green breastplates and shoulder pads, possibly carbon composite, matching helmets with blue tinted goggles and a mouth mask that seemed to have been copied from Darth Vader. On the side of the shoulder pads was a round, yellow emblem with a skull on it, three tendrils reaching out from the mouth to the left side and another three reaching out to the right.

Two were right by the door, another two patrolling along the perimeter of the roof and other two near the center, a rocket launcher on the floor between them.

"The rear guard." Spartan whispered. "Dynamo, Shadow. Get the patrollers. Electra, Tempest, the ones in the middle. Me and Blondie got the ones at the door. On three." He said, making sure everyone had heard. "One... Two... Three!" He called out as MAX Force leaped into action.

"Wha?" One of the raiders let off before a purple shield slammed into his jaw, a blonde, masked girl knocking his counter part down with a kick. Blonde took the confused man's gun before smacking him with the butt of it. Dual sonic and lightning blasts knocked out the next two before Tempest levitated them both down. Dynamo let off a loud cry as he leapt out, originally a battle cry, then a cry of fear as he recognized that he was quite high up in the air. Shadow had turned his darkness into springs, leaping onto his target and knocking him out with one blow, Dynamo clipping the shoulder of the other, knocking him back as a hand shot up to his helmet.

"This is Unit Beta Four, we are AHHH!" He let off, his body racked with lightning as Tempest lowered her hand. Electra rushed over grabbing his helmet and listening to the radio as the other gathered.

"Beta Four, please repeat. Beta Four, this is Alpha One, respond! ... Damn it, all units this is Alpha One! Swap to the second channel!"

"So much for the silent approach." Shadow let off, glaring at Dynamo. "Nice going Dyna-NO."

"Hey!" Dynamo barked back, getting up and glaring back. "You know what heights are like for me? Let's see _you_ get over it!"

"Want news pal? I _was_ like that. Know something? _I got over it._"

"Yeah, but not the spiders." Dynamo answered, stepping to Shadow, chest to chest. "So how's about I find a nice little tarantula and-"

"Can you two stop fighting_, please!_" Blondie shrieked out, clenching her hands together. "We're a _team_; we're not fighting each other!"

"Blondie's right, stand down! Both of you!" Spartan bellowed out, pointing at the two. "I know we're all nervous and scared. That can't be helped. Not just you guys, me too." He said as the other looked back at him, everyone's shoulders tense and stiff. "Listen; we knew this day was coming sooner or later. And this whole freaking _week_ things have been stressful because of this. But we need to focus. We are _better_ than this. We can do this. But only together, as a team; backing each other up no matter how bad it gets."

Everyone stayed silent for a moment before Shadow drew in a breath and let it out. "Yeah man... You, you're right. I've been tense all week and not myself." He said before turning back to Dynamo. "I'm, I'm sorry dude. Really, I didn't mean it..."

"No, no, it's fine." Dynamo said, laughing nervously as he waved it off. "I'm sorry too. I'll do better, I promise."

"Good." Spartan said as he smiled, his shoulders relaxing a bit. "Now, back to work. They know we're here, but they don't know who we are. _Yet_. Tempest, take Blondie and Electra down to the forty fifth and take control of that security hub. Once Electra is hacked in we can get a camera feed. I'll take Dynamo and Shadow and we'll work our way down, floor to floor. Everyone ready?" He asked, looking about. Seeing everyone smile back and nod he remade his shield and sword before thrusting the blade skywards. "Then let's _max it up!_"

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

"This is Unit Alpha One." Captain Garron called out into his helmet mounted radio. "We must assume that Beta's rear guard has been eliminated, possibly by SHIELD agents. Delta One, guard the entryway and keep the security room in our hands. Alpha Two, take Alpha Four, Five, Six, Seven, Nine and Ten to the entryway of this floor. Guard it until we secure the package. Remember your training and you _will_ return home today. _Am I right men!_"

"**Sir! Yes Sir!" **The reply came in.

"Damn right I am!" Garron bellowed out. "Now hop to it!" He said, turning off the radio and walking to the man at the computer. "Why is it taking so long?"

"Security feature." The man said, gulping and sweating bullets. He was thin, tall and lanky with plain brown hair, brown eyes, brown rimmed glasses and a brown suit, all very plain.

If Garron bumped into him again on the street he doubted he'd recognize the man. "Explain."

"If you cannot provide the exact number of the box you want then the computer is programmed to insert a fifteen minute delay before retrieving the number." He said, more than happy to explain it all as long as the gun the man called 'Alpha Three' didn't fire at him. "In addition the numbers displayed will be coloured. The number's proper order will be in reverse alphabetical order according to colour. In addition it requires two keys and two pass codes, one of each held by us, the other by the client. Lastly if the system notices more than two individuals enter the vault at the same time it will automatically shut and lock for seven hours. There is no other way to open it." He said, gulping as the man behind him snorted.

"Very interesting." Garron said, pacing before the desk. "Anything else?"

"There is. You blew it up already." The man answered.

"I see."

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

"Glad to see one elevator still works." Blondie let off as the stairs flew past them. Both she and Electra were hanging onto Tempest as she used her storm based powers to lower them down.

"Ha, ha." Tempest said deadpan before landing at the forty fifth floor, twisted destruction under them with blackened walls two stories down. "Forty fifth floor! Sporting goods, ladies undergarments and bad guys!"

"Be careful, they are likely guarding the door." Electra cautioned as Blondie walked up to it.

"Ah, can't be that bad." She said, pulling the door open. In response hundreds of bangs sounded as slugs of copper coated lead filled the air. Some sailed past as Electra and Tempest dived to lie on the floor as they covered their heads with their arms, but most struck Blondie's head, chest and abs, bouncing off harmlessly. "Wow! There are a lot of guys with guns over there!"

The men had pulled out tables and filing cabinets, and anything else large enough to hide their bodies behind as they fired their guns over them. They didn't expect the barriers to halt bullets, only to obscure their positions when they ducked down. Others hid about corners, guns sticking out the sides. Two men manned a much larger machine gun that seemed big enough to need two men to move about. One held up a belt of ammunition as the other held and fired it, propped up on a turned over book shelf. All of them were firing at her, stopping only to swap empty magazines.

"I didn't notice!" Tempest said sarcastically, crawling to the door and pushing a hand forwards as she called upon her powers. Winds normally reserved for powerful tornados shot into the floor, swirling about and causing the men to duck for cover, screaming out as many were lifted up and flung into walls, ceilings and features. Makeshift barriers blew about, striking men or landing on them, winds of chaos spilling in. Once Tempest called off her powers she and Blondie rushed into the room, Electra following with her Sound Gun at the ready.

The men who weren't unconscious were too dazed to put up a fight and quickly joined their comrades in force induced slumber.

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

"**Contact!"** Garron heard Delta One over the radio, frowning. He was a man who preferred to be leading men in combat, not listening in to the radio. But the mission was too vital; he had to secure the package personally.

Captain Jim Garron was a former marine who was dishonourably discharged for violent conduct. He had smacked prisoners about if he thought they had information, journalist that got too uppity, soldiers that didn't follow orders, no matter what they were. Former friends that would have defended the man as a hardworking solider with anger issues that needed to be addressed decided against it after a video appeared on YouTube that showed him pissing on the American flag before setting it on fire.

Two days after posting the video he was found in a back alley, handcuffed to a dumpster and with two broken ribs, among other things. Hydra had recruited him soon after and had given him free reign.

Prisoners? You could do as you pleased. Rape, shooting, torture; anything went.

Journalist? Shoot on sight. He always hated them anyway.

His own men? If they acted up he could discipline them how he pleased. Hell, he hadn't had to do that since he broke in the newest member of his squad.

Which reminded him; Jerrod could use a promotion. He'd do the paperwork back at base. All in all he was given free reign and his record showed what the results were. This would be no different. Once the package was secure he would radio Gamma One to send the helicopter to pick them up. It was fifteen minutes out, far enough so that it wouldn't be seen, and possibly shot down, while they did their work.

"**It's a masked **_**girl!**_**"** One of the men, Delta Four, shouted out.

"**Doesn't matter! Fill her with bullets!"** Delta One shouted back as gunfire erupted. **"We'll sort it out... **_**what the fuck!**_**"**

"**Hey! What gives! The bullets are just bouncing off her!"**

Garron felt as if some cold hand reached into his back and grabbed his spine. "Delta One, report!"

"**Target is... bulletproof sir!" **The answer came back, gunfire still sounding over the radio, almost drowning out his words. **"She has no body armour, she's just standing there! Bullets aren't waaaaahhhh!"**

"Delta One!" Garron called out as what sounded like... wind drowned out the screams over the communications device. It sounded to him as if someone had shoved the radio into a tornado and turned up the volume. Two minutes passed until the sounds of a storm ended, two minutes spent in worry. "Delta One report! Delta One! ... Delta Two, sitrep!"

"**Contact lost with Delta One." **The voice came back, a bit shaky. **"Three contacts, young females. Seemingly no armour, but ... Did she just throw a **_**bolt of lightning! She did! She's blasted Delta Ten with a bolt of lightning!**_**"**

"Mutants..." Garron whispered out, teeth clenching. They were a well kept secret. Enhanced humans with powers beyond normal man granted by either, depending on who you spoke with, the evolution of human beings or a genetic defect. Either way they had super powers. If you saw it in a comic book then chances were a mutant either had that power or one with that power would be born. So far there were less than fifty known mutants. Current predictions indicated that there could be as many as a thousand unknown mutants alive at that moment. Currently there were only two known groups of mutants, the X-Men and the Brotherhood. Garron quickly looked over both in his mind and dismissed the possibility that either were responsible for the attack on his men.

Xavier wouldn't know what was there, and wouldn't send his X-Men to stop him, not to mention that he was focused on maintaining a low profile and not drawing attention. The Brotherhood was formed by Magneto and Mystique to enforce their supremacist agendas, but was filled with misfits and troublemakers who wouldn't stop Hydra either. If anything they would take the chance to steal anything else they could. There was a chance that Magneto or Mystique had formed a new group, but after abandoning the Brotherhood not too long ago it would take time for them to find and recruit mutants.

This meant that _this_ group was likely unaffiliated with the X-Men, Brotherhood _or_ Magneto and Mystique and was a wild card. This group had an unknown agenda save one part of itinerary; stopping Garron's strike force.

"Delta Two! Use _maximum force! _Hold nothing back! Use every weapon you have no matter the collateral or friendly fire, _kill them at any cost!_" Garron shouted out into the radio.

"**Understood Sir! We are engaging, ahhhhhh! Stop! Turn it off!"**

Garron grimaced and turned the radio off as a rapidly changing sound, akin to nails on a chalkboard into a megaphone, joined in by three off tune cats howling, filled the airwaves. He rubbed at his ears, blocked by his helmet. "Shit..." He let off as the computer beeped.

"Got it." Alpha Three said, looking at the screen. "Box fifty six, forty one."

"Move out!" Garron shouted, turning the radio back on. "Unit Alpha, move to the vault! Units Beta and Delta are down! We cannot stay to retrieve, we must move!"

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

"That's that..." Tempest said as she and Blondie stripped the weapons off the last solider, tying a knot with a cord, binding his wrists to his ankles. Each of the team's belts had lengths of cord that could be used to tie up suspects or criminals and they had made sure that each man had been well restrained.

"I'm in." Electra said as she set her hands on a security consol. "Wow, very advanced anti-hacking, virus and malware systems. They don't spare expense on their systems. Not to mention the OS is nothing like windows, Mac or-"

"Yeah, yeah." Tempest said, cutting her off. "Bad guys?"

"Oh, yes. Of course." Electra said as she accessed the security camera. "The others are now on the fifty second floor. No one on any other floor save the fifty first."

Tempest moved next to Electra, viewing the feed. Ten armed men, one holding a scared looking man at gunpoint, at the vault. The man was pushed forwards as he reached for the controls. "Spartan, they have a hostage and are forcing him to open the vault! They are on the fifty first! Five one!"

"**Roger! Rush up here!" **Spartan replied as Tempest nodded.

"Back to the stairs!"

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

"Open it up! Fast!" Garron ordered, all but Alpha Three aiming their guns at the direction of the stair way. Alpha Seven's grenade launcher was out and aimed right down the middle. Garron was not going to pull punches. "If you see anything, _anything,_ move, waste it!"

"Sir, yes sir!" His men replied as the worker entered the code. Garron felt sweat on his brow. Damn vault had four codes and you had to wait two minutes _between each code_. The security here wasn't just high, it was _overkill._

"We don't know who or what is coming but it ain't human!" Garron let off before an explosion sounded. For a split second he had thought the grenade launcher had found a target until he realized it came from _above _them. Debris fell down, the men covering themselves as Garron looked up to see a gaping hole. Next thing he knew his view was taken up by a man with a purple hammer in his hand that seemed to be made of light.

The blow cracked his helmet at the front, staggering him as a man in black stuck Alpha Three with a bludgeon of an ink black substance, knocking him out. A green blast knocked most of his other men back, some out cold as a huge man leapt down to the floor, he and the one in black jumping at his soldiers, taking them while they were dazed. Garron, meanwhile, had other issues. He was facing down another one in a blue bodysuit with brass coloured armour. He had a purple war hammer in one hand and a large round shield in the other. Garron brought up his gun, the mutant responding, not by swinging the weapon but charging with the shield, ramming him and forcing him back, _then _swung the weapon to knock the gun to the floor.

Snarling he kicked at the shield, forcing himself back more than the mutant as he drew his sidearm, firing as the mutant crouched down, his face moving under the shield. He fired the pistol, bullets bouncing off the construct. He tossed the gun aside after he emptied the clip; it wouldn't do him any further good, and drew his electric baton from his hip.

The hammer vanished and was replaced with a leaf shaped sword as the mutant charged. Garron thrust out the baton, his opponent letting his shield deflect it before swinging the sword, pulling the shield back for momentum.

Grinning and seeing his open his defences he ducked down, before thrusting his weapon out. A loud crack sounded soon after. Garron landed on the floor, blacking out with a groan. Damn mutant swung the shield into his face while leaning to the right. These guys weren't some amateurs. They were trained and trained well. The baton was kicked away as the man looked down at him.

"Who... are you...?" Garron got out, fighting the blackness.

"Us? We're the guys that make sure people like you get intimate with Bubba at the pen." Spartan replied as the man beneath him passed out. He let out a breath as he kneeled down, stripping his weapons off then tying him up. Fighting the leader of the villains was different than in the movies. It was a lot shorter for one.

"Looks we got 'em all." Dynamo said, flexing a muscle. "Yeah man! That's how it's _done_!" He let off.

"You okay buddy?" Shadow asked the man who had ducked into the crevice between the safe door and the wall. He nodded slowly as he stood up.

"Yes... yes, thanks to you." He said sighing. "Oh god, they were gonna kill me... After getting what they wanted I was sure... Who are you?" 

"Friends." Spartan said as he walked over. "Can you tell me what they were after?" He asked as the man shook his head.

"On of our safety deposit boxes. I don't know whose, or what's in it." He said. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine." The leader replied as Dynamo and Shadow quickly tied up the rest of the men. "Just find out who owns it and warn him." 

"Of course." He said as two girls ran into the room through the hall, a blonde and blue haired beauty.

"Wow, you guys took a shortcut." Blondie said, looking up at the hole.

"Hey, it worked." Spartan replied shrugging as Electra caught up a moment later, setting a hand on the wall, panting.

"Okay... Why couldn't... We fly up... If we flew... down?" She asked between pants.

"Because running was safer." Tempest answered honestly. If the truth had to be told she was still working on the whole flying thing and didn't need to smash into the walls.

"Sides, it's good for the quads." Dynamo chipped in.

"Shut... up..." Electra snapped back, still panting and bent over.

"**Spartan, it's Skyway. Three contacts, coming fast, ETA ten minutes!" **The team heard over their communicators. **"Looks like the military got mobilized."**

"Copy, we're done. Come in for a pick up!" Spartan barked back before reaching to his waist. "Here, when they ask who stopped them, give them this." He said, passing the man a blue business card. "Okay guys, fall back to the roof!"

"You heard the boss, _move, move!_" Dynamo shouted out, running for the stairs, grabbing Electra as he went by, the rest of the team following him as he carried her on his shoulder over her protests.

As footsteps thundered up the stairs the man looked over at the card. "MAX Force? Metahuman Action Xtreme? What kinda people are these?"

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

The team had made it back up to the roof and into the Impact well before the military had shown up. The cloaked aircraft took off, sailing back towards the MAX Mansion.

Once the military had shown up several armed marines had repelled down to the roof, weapons drawn. They checked over the unconscious bodies before storming down the levels. They found the bank worker among a sea of bodies, all out cold. Soon after the area was secure and one more man landed on the roof, quickly going down to the fifty first floor. He looked over and saw the man, talking to one of his subordinates. "Open the vault." He barked out, getting the man's attention as he walked over.

"Uh, sir?"

"It's fine; I know what they were after." The man, with greying hair and a patch over his left eye said as he pulled out a small, blue key. The man's eyes widened before he nodded as he walked to the vault, imputing the last code. "Wait here." He said to his soldiers as the door opened, him and the bank worker walking in.

"Here." The man said, stopping at one. "This is the one they wanted."

"It's unmarked." The military man said.

"Well mister, umm..."

"Fury. Colonel Fury."

"Colonel. They're marked with a special ink that can only be read with the right glasses." He said, sighing as he pulled out a small red key, slipping it into the box under, Fury doing the same. A small keypad flipped out from under the box. The man typed in a code, followed by Fury. A moment later the box clicked and opened allowing Fury to reach in, pulling a large briefcase out.

"Thank you. I'll need to get this to safe spot." Fury said nodding once.

"Wait!" The man said as he pulled out a card. "The people who stopped those men... their leader gave me this..."

"Hmmm..." Fury said as he took the card. "Interesting..."

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

"Sir?" A tall woman in a blue bodysuit called out as Fury entered the helicopter. It hugged her figure tightly showing off generous, but not overstated, curves that matched her short, tomboyish haircut. A pistol was at her hip, white gloves and boots on her limbs. On each shoulder was an eagle like emblem as well as the left side of her chest.

"Commander Hill, we're heading to the Helicarrier. We need to secure this." Fury said as the ramp closed up the aircraft flying off.

"If I may ask... what is it?" She asked as Fury seat the briefcase on one of the seats on the side of the craft. He opened the clasps, smiling softly. "One of the greatest treasures our country has." He said before opening it.

Hill sucked in a breath. There it was; rings of red and white around a circle of blue with a white star proudly on the center. The large, metal disk shone despite it's age and use, as if refusing to show signs of wear.

It wasn't a shield. It was _the _shield. Captain America's shield.

"My grandfather told me stories. Of the war." Hill spoke softly. "He was a tank commander. His tread was struck, then their tank's gun. Somehow no one died, but the tank was ruined. A Tiger Tank was bearing down on them. He said they were dead until _he _showed up, jumped on their tank deflected the shell the Tiger fired upwards. Landed smack dab in front of the Tiger. Detonated and kicked up enough dust that they never saw him coming until he tore the hatch off and beat the crew with his bare hands. Then he had my grandpa and his crew come out of their tank and led them to safety." Hill said walking over and kneeling, reaching out and setting a hand on the star. "Without him... I wouldn't even be born."

"Without him, New York would be speaking German." Fury said softly before closing the case, Hill pulling her hand back. "Damned if I let Hydra take this..." He'd have to thank this MAX Force, whoever they were, at some point, and figure out who they were and what they were doing. All he knew right now was they were an enemy of Hydra.

That was good enough.

For now.

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

Sighing softly in his office, Professor Charles Xavier set some papers he was working on aside before emerging from his solitude and into the hall. The past week had been busy and eventful with all the new mutants in the manor. They were still awaiting the arrival of Jubilation Lee the next day, but after that they wouldn't have any additional mutant guests for the foreseeable future. He smiled softly as the elevator took him down to the first floor. He was disappointed that Scott's brother, Alex Masters, had declined the offer to join them at the institute but since Magneto's defeat there had been nothing but good things.

Ororo had taken control of the Danger Room sessions for the new mutants, Xavier had decided it was best to ease them to the training facility with a gentler hand before letting Logan do his routine 'tortures' to them. The older students, Scott and Jean especially, had taken the mentorship roles he had hoped they would, helping the new arrivals learn about their powers. It was a busy time for Charles Xavier's School for the Gifted, and often chaotic, but happy and joyful. He arrived, smiling softly, as he saw Evan, Ororo's nephew, fighting over the remote for the common room's television, with a small squad of Jamies and Rahne.

"Whoa, come on! Senior gets to pick the X-Games!" Evan let off as Rahne leapt onto his back, latching on.

"Nay, Spongebob Squarepants is on, and ye ain't stealin' it from us!" Rahne replied as she used an hand to grapple for the remote, three Jamies pulling at his arm. The laughing each was giving off was enough to show that no one was being serious here.

"If you are quite done..." Xavier said after a moment, giving an amused look as the three mutants, plus multiple clones, glanced over at him, stopping in their tracks. "I have a documentary to watch."

"Aww..." They let off before all but one Jamie vanished. Smiling he was about to roll forwards in his chair to assume command of the remote as Scott rushed in, Rouge and Jean flanking him. Before a word could be said the older student had snatched away the remote, Evan looking over at Scott.

"Hey, Scott, what-"

"Look." Scott said as he turned on the TV, turning it to channel six. Xavier sensed from his pupil a sense of urgency.

It seemed Last Day of the Dinosaurs would have to wait.

"And now, for our top story..." A woman said on the screen, a pretty young lady with Asian features and short hair that hid part of her left eye, the caption proclaiming her name as 'Sandra Chung.' A picture in the upper right of the screen appeared showing a muscular black silhouette with a red cape attached to the shoulder flexing both arms in the air like a bodybuilder. The caption under the image was simply 'Superheroes Save Bank.'

Before she even began speaking Xavier drew in a soft breath. He prayed this did not mean what he thought it did.

"This morning at eleven thirty five PM a group of twenty five armed terrorists assaulted Bayville's own Bank of Valour." Sandra began looking straight at the camera. "Police say the men glided down to the rooftop with parachutes and launched an assault on the bank, killing twenty four security personnel and bank workers. Bayville's SWAT Team dispatched two helicopters, but both were shot down, killing an additional dozen SWAT officers and the four helicopter pilots and co-pilots. While the terrorists took control of the upper levels six individuals deployed into the bank, defeating the terrorist threat and saving seven bank personnel, most of whom were locked in a room on the forty eighth floor, and one of which was being forced to open their vaults.

"However, Channel Six news has received exclusive security video of the day's events." She added as the view changed to a security camera's recording. It was very high quality, the bank was known for spending on security, and Xavier and his students could clearly make out a girl opening a door without seeing the dozen odd armed men behind it. All of them opened fire, only for the girl to blatantly ignore the bullets smashing into her body. "According to video and eye witness reports each one of these individuals has a unique ability that some experts have gone to outright claim are 'super powers.'" The woman added as a blast of wind knocked back the terrorists on the video before three girls stormed the floor. Another feed cut to showing one of them pull out a gun like device that distorted the air before her, disabling a score of men who writhed in pain before falling. "The exact origins of these abilities are as of yet unknown, but we do have an eye witness, the captive forced to open the vault, who was there during the fighting."

The view cut to a man in a plain brown suit, standing before the bank, taking to the camera. The sound was muted before Sandra's voice cut in again. "Peter Basic was held at gunpoint when three of the six unknown individuals rescued him."

"I was being forced to open the vault, inputting the codes, and the ceiling just exploded." Peter began as the view cut to another camera, showing ten armed men, one aiming his weapon at Peter, as the rest aimed down the hall. Debris rained down on them before three young men leapt down. "One of them, their leader, took on the boss of the thugs attacking us." They watched the TV as two of the men, one in a black and green suit and the other in an all black body suit with a white S on the front and mask under a hood, leapt at the bulk of the men, subduing them in the confusion while the third fought the leader with a purple shield and sword made of light. After knocking out the leader of the terrorists the view cut back to Peter.

"He gave me a card to pass on to the military." He continued. "It read 'MAX Force on it." He said before the view cut back to Sandra in the studio.

"This MAX Force, or Metahuman Action Xtreme, left just as quickly as they came." She continued. "No reports on how they were able to launch such a bold sortie when SWAT failed. Responses from law enforcement and military officials have, thus far, been mixed. A SWAT spokesman has stated that 'The Special Weapons And Tactics team is devastated by the loss of so many of it's finest men. We are thankful that this team, whoever they are, brought their killers to justice. The military has made no official comments yet, but an insider says they are expressing concern over the possibility of a rogue, independent unit in the country.

"Commissioner Armstrong of the Bayville Police Department, however, had stronger words for this 'MAX Force.'" She said as the view switched to a muscular man in a trench coat, a brass badge on his left chest. His eyes were narrow with a permanent glare as he looked into the camera, his white hair and moustache neat and trimmed. His face showed the wrinkles and lines of a many in his late fifties.

"This group is nothing more than un_licensed_, un_trained_, and un_sanctioned_ vigilantes that have no business involving themselves in actions against criminals or terrorists. I don't care if they think they're living in a comic book, when I find them I am shutting them down! And this _better _be on the six 'o clock, because I want them to _hear every damned word!_"

"Heroes or vigilantes?" Sandra said as the view switched back to her. "Currently no one but MAX Force knows what they are... Or even if they will strike again. This is Sandra Chung for the six 'o clock news. Thank you, and goodnight." She said just before a theme tune played and credits began rolling.

Scott turned off the TV as Evan shook his head. "Oh man... The jig is up..." Evan let off so softly that he was sure no one else heard as he looked around. Scott's jaw was clenched shut and his hands balled into fists, as if restraining himself from blasting the TV apart with his optic blasts. Jean bit her lip in worry, grabbing hold of the back of the couch. Rahne and Jamie sneaked looks around them as they seemed confused. Rogue crossed her arms and kept a neutral look on her face but her eyes smouldered with anger.

Just off to the side sat the Professor in his wheelchair, eyes fixated on the now black screen. His eyes were wide open and the windows to his soul showed a mixture of shock and fear. His mouth was slack, his jaw hanging open. His body had slumped into the seat, no longer looking like a sagely man but a worn down elder. But most of all his skin had gone a shade paler, as if the blood had rushed from his face.

Things had changed.


	4. Chapter III

Notes...

BitchAmI/lordoftoast/Blue-Red-Ninja/HokkaidoMaster: Thank you. I was worried about the fight scenes, so it's good to know I got it down.

Ember Ice: I thought it might work. I figured her owning a bike would mean she'd want to be competent with fixing it. Oh, and she gets on a Ninja this chapter.

Cloudy-TheNightMareQueen: There was a ' at the end, but it blended in with the ".

Everyone Else: Please leave a review if you're reading the fic, even a short one. I can take criticism, so long as it's not an out and out flame.

(Dons flame proof uniform) Just in case.

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

Chapter III: New Beginnings

"That's right boys, chop those suckers up!" A man cried out, clapping his hands as he looked over his crew walking along the formerly abandoned warehouse. The man's name was George Florence, better known as G-Flow. He was the leader of this little ring of car thieves, chopping them up for parts or selling them in one piece to the proper buyer such as the red Plymouth Superbird that just came in.

He loved the look of that thing.

G-Flow stood six foot three and wore loose blue jeans with a pistol sticking out the back of the waistband and a white tank top that showed a collection of grease and oil stains. His head was bald but he kept a thin beard that went from his ears to chin where it formed a goatee. His left shoulder was covered with a fanged skull dripping blood, moving to his upper arm where a banner with the words 'Easy Riders' wrapped about. The back of his forearm was filled with a line of a dozen bones. He claimed each one was for someone he killed.

Truth be told, he just stopped counting at a dozen.

He grinned as he walked about, leather boots dragging a pair of short, three inch chains attached to the ankles, looking over the two dozen men who worked, pulling off tires, removing engines and transmissions, fuel tanks, anything they could make a buck on.

Truth be told, G-Flow wasn't a car guy, he was just smart enough to run this little ring of thieves. He took his cut, paid off the troops and sent the monthly tribute to KP. He rubbed his hands as the garage doors opened, a two thousand three Chevrolet Malibu driving in, doors shutting behind it. Two of his men exited it once it was parked. One was an Asian man who stood at five seven. He only knew him as China Jack, a Chinese youth who illegally entered the county, traveled to New York and joined a street gang before becoming an accomplished car jacker. The other man was Richard Roses, aka Holy Roses, a six foot lanky black man who had partnered himself with China Jack and bore a cross tattooed into his chest which always in plain sight with all the open shirts he wore.

Crime: Equal opportunity and always hiring!

G-Flow shook hands with the two men and looked over their prize. "Nice. Older model, but looks well taken care of."

"Course it well taken care of!" China Jack said in his accented, somewhat broken English as he patted the car's hood. "I China Jack! Jack only good ride!" He added, patting his chest.

"Yeah, what my homie said." Holy Roses added, smiling as he laughed out in victory. "Found this little sweet thing hanging out, all alone, down at a stripper shop. So while dumbass gets wasted and tips g-strings we gonna pull apart this ride and sell it for green, yo."

G-Flow still had no idea why these two, who couldn't speak normal English, worked so well together, but as long as they brought him the goods he didn't care. His business was picking up and unlike most chop's operations he needed to have an inventory because he kept selling them as fast as they came in.

Damn he ruled. "Get this car checked out and ready for slicing!" G-Flow called out, two of his workers rushing over. One reached in, popping the hood before the other lifted it.

"Hey, G-Flow! Look at this." The worker said, reaching in and grabbing something.

"What ya got?" G-Flow asked as he walked over, flanked by China Jack and Holy Roses. The worker pulled out a small card, passing it to G-Flow.

"Let's see. 'Payment required: Your ass in jail.' ... The hell is this?" G-Flow let off as he turned over the card.

"MAX Force?" Jack scoffed, shaking his head. "Is not real!"

"What my boy said, I mean MAX Force?" Roses replied laughing. "MAX Scam more like it. It's all just some Hollywood hocus pocus made up by coppers to scare us into thinking Superman gonna come clean out our backsides with laser eyes. Ain't nothing!"

"Shut up man." G-Flow replied before glaring at the two. "MAX Force might be fake but this card is real. Someone knew we'd be raiding cars, meaning this car is nothing but a damned trap!" He shouted out tossing the card down. Before any replies could be made the building was rocked as the garage door was blasted out of place, slamming onto the Malibu. "_Shit!_" He let off, drawing his pistol. Jack and Roses did the same, aiming where the doors once were.

"You're _half _right." They heard as an armoured figure walked forwards, energy shield on one arm, energy sword in the other. "It is a trap."

"But we are as real as the ass kicking your all about to get!" Shadow replied, manipulating darkness to form two hammers over his hands.

"Unless you feel like giving up right now." Blondie added as she cracked her knuckles. "Save us some time."

Shadow smirked under his mask as he watched the workers either pick up tools to arm themselves or run for the doors. They had taken the liberty of blocking all the doors so the former was going to be _slightly _more helpful than running. MAX Force formed a loose line at the opening where a garage door once was, with Tempest hovering over them with orders to keep anyone from escaping.

The rest got the fun part.

"Blowin' shit up and coming dressed for Halloween ain't helpin' you any you damn fools!" G-Flow shouted out. "Waste the suckers, ughh!"

"Talk about a loud mouth." Dynamo deadpanned having blasted the lead thug into a pile of tires.

"_Let's max it up!_" Spartan shouted out as Shadow melted into his own shadow. Before Jack or Roses could pull their triggers he popped up behind them, smacking both in the back of their skulls, KOing them.

He remembered once when that simple act would have left him tired and groggy. Now it was just another tactic to use thanks to Maxwell's and Smith's training regimes. The workers that had grabbed weapons charged. The ones that ran found escape cut off and followed their brother's example and grabbed anything that looked to be a weapon. Men armed with crowbars, hammers, metal bars and even power tools. One had even charged Spartan with a plane of glass from a windshield, swinging for the metahuman's head. Spartan replied by raising his shield up. Energy shield stood up while windshield deformed, several spider web cracks appearing in it.

"Might want to fix that." Spartan quipped, backhanding the man with the shield. "Cracked windshields are a _hell_ of a driving hazard."

Shadow himself, meanwhile, ducked under a crowbar, hammer shaped fist lifting up into the man's jaw before spinning about, backhanding a second. These were not the training robots he realized.

Real people dropped much easier. He swung at a third man who ducked before hardening his hood as he head butted him. The thug staggered back before Shadow kicked him in the head. A blast of wind knocked another man into a car as Blondie picked up a dropped carjack handle, smacking heads with it.

Electra's Sound Gun made itself known, bubbles of force knocking thieves about as Shadow leapt back up, turning a hammer to a tendril spinning before ploughing it into three charging men. Dynamo's blasts shot out, slamming workers around, knocking them to the floor and into piles of parts. The sound of a revving tool alerted Shadow as he melted down, porting himself next to a car.

Sure enough, there was a man that was where he just was. If you googled the phrase 'big scary black man' this guy would have his image pop up. Nearly seven feet tall, the darkest skin he had ever seen, huge muscles, missing front teeth and a pair of cordless circular saws with the guards taped back in each hand, both spinning their blades at full speed. "_Please, please _tell me that you're not a stereotypical black gansta guy. Because, really, I want society to evolve past that."

"I'ma gonna lob ya head off and then take a _shit down your neck!_" The huge thug bellowed. Shadow sighed.

"For every ten men that proved Martin Luther King right, there's at least one idiot like you." Shadow said, shaking his head as the man charged, swinging a saw about in a haymaker. Shadow leapt up, flipping over the car, the saw glancing off the roof. The man roared out, leaping onto the hood and jumping at him, swinging both saws down in an over hand smash just as Shadow finished forming darkness around an arm, making a two foot long arm with a massive fist at the end, swinging it about in an uppercut, catching him on the chin. The man didn't drop the saws, but fell back onto the hood. As he sat up, Shadow rushed forwards smashing the fist into his head again.

"Gahhh..." The man let off as the saws slowed then stopped spinning as his grip loosened.

"Bigger they are... The more I wish they'd stay down." He quipped. Looking about he saw that Tempest had landed, walking into the warehouse and that no one but MAX Force was standing.

"Tie them up!" Spartan called out, Dynamo, Shadow and Blondie quickly working to bind the crooks. Looking about the team leader had thought things were going well for MAX Force. This had been the most serious bust they made over the past week after the terrorist attack on the bank. Tuesday was an attempted bank robbery, Friday was a museum break in and Saturday was a counterfeit operation. This bust though was another thing entirely. This crime ring had been costing car owners, in total, over three million dollars the previous year. They had been trying to catch them the past week, but nothing until Tempest struck on the idea of figuring out what cars were being stolen, where they were being stolen from, and planting one with a tracker on it.

Needless to say it worked perfectly. Two of the carjackers had found the bait at a strip bar they set it in and from there all they had to do was follow them, out of sight while relying on the GPS tracker.

Commissioner Armstrong was going to freak when he learned MAX Force had busted a crime ring in under a week that he'd been chasing for over two years.

Armstrong, from what Spartan knew, was a capable cop and good commissioner who had pushed crime rates down by seven percent since taking over, but was also unable to refuse to listen to a good idea if it was proposed by someone he didn't like. Most of the bait cars used by the police were newer, expensive models with high security. This ring, meanwhile, avoided those cars specifically because of the security, instead targeting cars without high security features or with easily bypassed ones. When they did steal newer cars they tended to use tow trucks and cut the GPS out before driving back to the lair. At the end of the day Armstrong was a watchful and vigilante guard dog who refused to learn new tricks.

Not the kinda guy that would be easy for MAX Force to work with.

In addition to all of that the MAX Activators had allowed them to stop smaller crimes while out and about in town. He had wound up stopping a mugger, Dynamo a gas station robbery, while Blondie and Electra stopped a pair of drug dealers. Tempest topped them all, however, by catching a car.

Some thief had been driving like a maniac trying to get away from the cops and caused a bus to skid out of control and stop on the overpass said thief drove up. The man lost control, hit the guardrail and started to topple over towards the bus. One whirlwind blast under the hood pushed the car back onto the road. The thief was too dazed to do anything as the police arrested him and Tempest flew off.

Pictures of Tempest before and after the act had appeared on the internet and Facebook. One, taken by a 'kittykatpryde' had shown the storm maker direct the whirlwind downwards before the wind changed course under the front of the car, pushing it back up. Spartan spared a glance at the girl as she tied up a worker just as she saw something from the corner of her eye.

"Oh, look at _that!_" Tempest gushed out as she hugged the hood of a car. "A Plymouth Superbird! Hemi V-Eight, four speed, under five seconds to sixty... Oh I love it! Nineteen seventy classic, I say!"

"Yeah, has a nice look to it." Dynamo said, shrugging. "Not much for old cars myself though." If the truth had to be told he just liked bikes. Hell, Maxwell had gotten him a silver Harley Davidson Fat Boy Lo motorbike.

He just liked the model name too much; Fat Boy Lo...

"_I want it!_"` Tempest declared as Spartan shook his head.

"If you're done fondling the car, we need to go." He said, nodding to Dynamo who grabbed Tempest by her belt before dragging the pouting girl away. "Electra, send a message to the BPD, they can sort out things from here. Move out!"

The team quickly ran back out, with one still pouting Tempest, to their vehicles, parked just outside. Two of the MAX Ninjas and a MAX Lancer awaited them, Spartan jumping into the driver's seat with Shadow beside him. Blondie and Electra got in behind them as Dynamo and Tempest mounted the bikes, putting helmets on their heads. The engines revved up before the team drove off, turning into a darkened alley way first. Once the vehicles exited MAX Force ceased to be, replaced by four normal teens in a nice car and two normal teens on motorcycles with helmets and leather jackets on. "Let's get home quick, we got a big day tomorrow." Spartan said through a built in com system. It was ten on a Sunday and school started tomorrow. The last thing they needed was to be late to the first class of the year.

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

"Come on Chuck, tell me you got some sleep last night." Logan drawled out as he walked up behind Xavier inside Cerebro's chamber. Ever since MAX Force debuted there was a sense of worry hanging over the mansion, but no one took it more to heart than Charles Xavier. The helmet of Cerebro rested on his head as the mutant scanner worked it's magic, but when Logan looked up he saw nothing of note on the screen. "Those kids stuck again last night. Chop Shop operation." Logan drawled off, waiting to see his reaction.

He almost backed up a step when Xavier _growled _then took Cerebro off his head, slamming it to the desk. Charles Xavier had always been the single most in control man he had ever met. The man raising his voice was a rarity and he never got angry with his students, or at least never showed it beyond expressing disappointment.

Charles Xavier at the tender age of fourteen had manifested his powers of telepathy. He learned that he could hear the thoughts of others and even control the minds of others. For over two years he was haunted with thoughts of others jostling in his head and nightmares that were not his own. After graduating high school and going off to college he found some perks to his powers, now under his own thumb.

Charles had once admitted to Logan, in private and when it was only him Ororo and Richard at his feet, that he had abused his powers. Nothing that threatened lives or people's wellbeing, but the power he had lead the him as a youth to use them to bed a string of beauties and encourage deals in his favour or for jocks to beat themselves up rather than the geeks. Then one night he had too much to drink. He wasn't stupid enough to _drive_ drunk but he started to affect the drivers around him as he walked home that night. One crashed car and one smashed spine later and he was brought face to face with his own mortality and morality and took stock of who he was.

He didn't like what he saw.

For years after that he disciplined himself in not only better controlling his powers but making sure he would never, _ever_, abuse them as he had once. Then when he met Ororo, herself just about to exit her teens, he knew he had found a calling.

To do his best to help others not repeat his mistakes.

It was something that was very hard for the man to admit, and if anything after that talk Logan had a higher respect for the man than ever. Not just for admitting it to him, trusting him with it, but for the fact that he could turn himself from some snot-nosed brat with a superiority complex into a wise, stern but loving teacher. He taught control over powers and self and what he taught he had practiced. Xavier had an iron will, he would not show anger, true anger, without severe aggravation.

MAX Force had somehow managed that.

"Cerebro still cannot detect them somehow." Xavier let off, hands clutching the desk. "I'm not sure _how_ but they are blocking me, I know it. It's plausible that there are a handful of mutants who Cerebro cannot find, but _six_? _In the same area?_ It's the only answer."

"Look, I ain't the one here who preaches self control, but maybe you need to step back from this." Logan drawled out setting a hand on Xavier's shoulder. "If you get so worked up you ain't gonna do no one any good. Take a rest then get a fresh look at it."

"I know, Logan, I know." Xavier replied, slumping into his chair. "It's just that I've worked so long at this... The next generation of mutants are learning... I want them to be safe, to know no prejudice... These... _fools_ could expose us all... Then all that work is for nothing..."

"We might find a way to get Pandora back into the box, but for now we need more intel on these guys." Logan drawled off. "I know a guy. I'll go talk to him tomorrow, see if I can coax anything out of him."

"Thank you..."

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

"_Bacon!_" Alex proudly declared as he slapped eight pieces of the aforementioned food item on top of a slice of toasted bread, coated in butter, covered with cheese, spattered with an egg with a dash of pepper. Following the bacon was another egg, another piece of cheese, followed by another slice of toast on top of it.

"Dude... You cannot seriously eat that..." Conrad deadpanned as he ate his eggs, toast and bacon as separate items of food.

In his opinion that's how it should be.

"Ah, come on guys." Reese let off as Cassie drank a cup of coffee with one hand, the other busy writing down a series of scribbles she described as 'a complex mathematical theory that applies the potential continued motion of an object that teleports to another location using another dimension as a medium to traverse through.'

In other words, something he wouldn't even being to comprehend.

Reese downed an egg quickly before continuing. "We gotta get a good start for the day with school revving up and I don't want any bickering for the day." He said, giving them a smile to ensure he wasn't trying to be obnoxiously strict.

If anything Reese was feeling better than he could remember. After stopping the terrorists at the bank he had felt a weight fall off his shoulders. They had proven that MAX Force was capable; still in need of fine tuning, true, but capable. The past week had been a string of successful busts that had increased the team's confidence and killed the nervousness that once hung over their heads. As long as egos didn't swell everything would be great. Most of all he had, for the first time since the others had arrived, believed in something he hadn't truly believed in before; himself.

Reese was orphaned at the age of ten in a violent, destructive, preventable accident. He grew up in Toronto, a large city in the province of Ontario in Canada. His mother and father had taken him to Ottawa to attend the funeral of his grandparents. His father was very upset during the drive and his mother had told him that the only family they had left was Reese. It was a hard thing for the young boy to understand, but for him it became worse quickly.

The weather was horrible on the way home. A thunderstorm was passing though, water coming down on the road in large sheets. Lighting flashed in the background before thunder sounded. The cloud above just poured water down, looking an angry black. Then lights came from down the road. He hadn't seen them before, as if they had just been flicked on, and the car swerved towards them. His father tried to dodge, but between the suddenness of the danger and the horrible weather, they were still clipped, the impact forcing them off the road.

The other car drove off, vanishing into the night, until it was found two days later, the drunk's own car imbedded into a tree. He didn't die on impact but was, instead, trapped and bled out. His parents were spared a similar, painful fate.

Both were dead instantly, the only comfort being that they died with almost no pain.

Reese himself blacked out for sometime, how long he didn't know, and awoke to the sound of thunder. Freeing himself from the backseat he tried to revive his dead parents. For what felt like hours he tried to make them stop sleeping before he realized it was like that movie his father showed him once, Lion King.

They weren't going to wake up.

Soaked with rain, shivering from cold, and jumping at thunder the boy walked towards Toronto, the weather pounding him mercilessly. He cried to himself with each step, tears hidden by rain. He would be eventually found, not even he knew how much longer after he started walking, by a police officer.

The funeral was three days later. Since then he was placed into an orphanage, in a deep depression. He eventually learned to focus and find some joy, but the boy had no idea what to do, what he would become.

At thirteen his powers manifested.

Richard Maxwell had, as part of his plans, created a Cerebro device to find mutants that was limited to scanning only the area of a city, but also blocked out the scans of Xavier's Cerebro. He had set up these devices in select cities, including Toronto. When Reese manifested his powers, using them to create crude scissors to cut a piece of paper when he had none of his own, Richard rushed over.

Since then Richard had become Reese's legal guardian and made sure the youth gained a dual citizenship for Canada and America. But most importantly he told Reese of his plans for metahumans, what he would do and what he wanted Reese to do.

Reese was given a direction, a goal to work towards. And with encouragement from Maxwell, Parson and Smith he had rebuilt his life and himself, using his new direction as a stepping stone.

Now and again he would resent having this role chosen for him, but he also understood and offered Maxwell no ill will for it; he believed in what Reese could do.

And now so did Reese.

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

"Oh dear god..." Reese let off, dropping himself onto the bench. "Like driving around a group of six years olds..."

"Sounds like you're a babysitter there, handsome." He heard a slight twinge of British in the voice. He looked to his right, noticing the cute girl he had sat down beside.

Honestly he just decided to sit down anywhere after driving everyone over. The only good thing was that Ava and Alex took their two Harleys to school so he didn't need to deal with them as well.

Cassie and Rayn were arguing over the name of the Sound Gun with Cassie _still _calling it a Sonic Resonance Wavelength Displacer and Rayn insisting that she give it a smaller, easier to pronounce in mid-combat name.

Then Conrad decided to find a good music station; innocent enough until he found a Celine Dion marathon.

Rayn's horrible, _horrible_, singing ensued.

"Don't get me started..." He groaned, taking a better look at the girl. She was dressed in earth tones, brown pants and lighter vest over a cream, long sleeved shirt. Her hair was pretty striking though, dyed purple and hanging off one side of her head.

All in all she looked like a bit of a punk rocker, he guessed.

"Let's just say I hope no one starts any karaoke. I'd like the first day of a new school to go smoothly." He added.

"Ah. New here myself." The girl said as she looked around, spotting someone. "Excuse me. How long do these assemblies usually last?"

"Huh?" The other girl let off, as if she was in a slight daze. Reese looked her over as well, quickly. A bit busty, matching Ava maybe, and dressed in tights under a leather skirt, a sports bra looking thing under a near transparent green shirt and gloves on each hand. Rounding out the look was a studded collar and leather boots. Toss in purple lipstick and she looked about as goth as you could while not having it written on her shirt.

Still she was pretty, with nice short brown hair and a skunk stripe in it. "Oh, too long." She let off before moving to sit on the purple haired girl's other side. "But at least it gets us out of class." She added as Reese looked over his schedule.

"Not in a rush for classes. Geometry." He piped up, eyes rolling back. "Any kind of math sucks the life outta me."

"Sounds like we'll be sucked together." The punk girl added, looking over her own sheet.

"Barton's class huh?" The goth added. "You two are new?"

"Yes. Just met here ourselves." The other girl said. "I'm Risty Wilde. From Manchester England."

"Reese. Reese Guarder." Reese said, extending his hand, shaking Risty's first. "Nice to meet you both." He said before offering the hand to the goth.

"Rogue." She said, offering the two a smile as she shook Reese's hand as well. "Hang out afterwards. I'll show you where Barton's class is."

"That'd be great." Reese said, laughing softly. "They need a map of this place in here. I swear the only reason I found this place was by following where everyone was going."

"You get used to it." Rogue replied, laughing a bit. "Once you remember where everything is it's okay, but until then all the halls look the same."

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

"Damn man, that was too real..." Holy Roses groaned out as he glared at G-Flow. "You saw that right there man? Ain't no bull, those were real, hundred percent _superheroes_ that walked outta comic book ink and into the real world, yo."

"Rose right." China Jack spat out, glaring at G-Flow as well. "We now go to slammer. And China Jack go back to China. China not happy place for China Jack."

"Well gee, thanks for _recapping what just happened!_" G-Flow barked out. The three members, the leader and two big lieutenants of the Easy Riders, were in the back of a prison van being transported from the police station to a maximum security prison.

Commissioner Armstrong hated MAX Force, and it galled him that they were nabbing crooks under his nose, but as much as he wanted to shut down the superheroes he wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to put away a massive crime ring. And with twenty eight counts of murder against him, he thought it was higher to be honest, four against Roses and two on Jack they were all going away to jail. Jack would be taken out, and most likely set to China who had even more reasons to jail, if not kill, the man, and he and Roses would likely only get out of prison in pine wood boxes.

Yeah, things went to hell.

Then the van stopped.

"Huh? What up with this, man?" Roses let off, looking around. "This driver a fool or some kinda slacker? I know we ain't no where near the prison!"

"I dunno." G-Flow whispered. "Just stay quiet and keep an eye open for a way out." He let off before the back doors of the van opened.

"Gentleman, please step out." They heard. Looking out they saw five men in a loose half circle. As far as G-Flow was concerned they all looked like they walked off the set of Men in Black. No visible body armour or weapons, just five men in neat haircuts wearing suits and ties with sunglasses, all looking intimidating. G-Flow gestured with his head and the three exited out of the van, hopping down.

"Okay, colour me curious." G-Flow started, looking around. "The _fuck_ you guys want?"

"More like what my employer wants." G-Flow heard, turning his head to look.

The van had pulled into some kind of parking lot. It was abandoned; no one around save a well dressed man, another Men in Black reject, but this one with stubble on his chin and shaggy hair. He sat at a table, nothing fancy, a mere folding table with three folding chairs across from him, a selection of Kentucky Fried Chicken resting on the table. Behind him three white clothes covered three six foot six objects. One of the men before him held up a key, showing it before undoing the handcuffs of each the men.

"Come. Sit down. I have a business proposition." The man said as the half circle of MIBs stepped back.

"Man, we should just run..." Roses whispered out as G-Flow looked at the table. "This has creepy CIA shit all over it."

"Maybe." G-Flow said. "But this guy just kept us outta the pen. I don't think it'll hurt to hear him out. Sides, I'm hungry." G-Flow said before walking over to the table. Roses and Jack looked over at each other before shrugging and following their boss. Each sat down as the five men moved to stand behind them, keeping their distance.

"I'll be blunt." The man said as he picked up a soda, sipping a bit. "And help yourselves, eat all you want. My employer is aware you've had a... close encounter last night."

"Close encounter Jack's ass." China Jack said, grabbing a drumstick. "We get knocked around by stupid comic book people. Jack not happy. No more Easy Rider, no more easy riding. Gang done. No more money."

"Yes, mutants have a way of ruining people."

"Mutant?" Roses let off. "Thought the tag line in their little stupid acronym was Metahuman." Roses said, biting into his drumstick.

"Same thing." The man said. "Metahuman is just being... polite. Like calling the scum found at the bottom of a sewer 'Leftover Product.' They are mutants, genetic freaks. Nothing more."

"Freaks, superheroes, mutants, metas, whatever. I don't give a rat ass about _what_ they are or _who_ they are." G-Flow growled out. "What I want is to _gut each and every one of them and choke them with their own entrails! I want to shove my boot so far up their asses they will taste the dog turds on the bottom! I want to mount their heads on my wall so I can throw rotten eggs at them all day long!_" G-Flow screamed out before standing up and leaning over the table. "Now you didn't break us out for our own good. I ain't a fool. And you'd only bring those retarded super_zeroes_ up if you wanted to use us as some sort of cat's-paw to take a swipe at them." G-Flow snorted a bit standing straight up as he crossed his arms. "Now, am I wrong, or what?"

"...Not far off the mark." The man said as he narrowed his eyes. "But I should say-"

"What do I need to do?"

The man stopped and blinked. He had thought the criminal would have made demands or fight the fact he wanted to use him as a pawn, not embrace it. "Well, settle down a moment, eat, and I will explain."

G-Flow stood a moment longer before sitting down, grabbing some chicken to munch along side his comrades. Looking at the other two they seemed to be more than willing to follow their leader.

That's all the man needed. He stood up, starting to pace. "Needless to say my employer views mutants to be a threat to normal, decent human beings. And as you have seen, normal, decent human beings do not last long against mutants. We have prototype weapons made to combat this threat directly."

"What you guys? Dark Ops Military?" China Jack asked before biting into a new piece.

"That's _Black_ Ops, and as for who I am employed to, I am unable to disclose that information." The man said. "Needless to say he has resources, and determination. But that doesn't matter." He said as three of the MIBs walked around the table to grab the sheets. They pulled the sheets down, the cloths falling to the floor.

Now uncovered they could see three suits of humanoid armour, each resting on some manner of black capsule without tops or fronts. The armour was painted a dull grey and had a boxy look to it. The helmets had a clear faceplate, providing no obstructions to their view. Each of the three machine's arms had a machine gun on the bottom of the forearm, built into the armour. The left shoulder of each had what looked to be a rocket pod of some description.

And on the chests were painted the visage of a red dragon, fire swirling out it's mouth.

"Prototype Exo-Suits." The man said as the three crooks stopped eating to stare. "Limited flight capabilities, fifty cal machine guns in each arm, firing AP rounds at one hundred and fifty bullets a minute. Rockets with lock on and laser guided capabilities. Armour plating that's just shy of a tank's. Excellent mobility and pneumatic systems will increase the user's strength to super human levels. It interfaces with your mind, allowing finer precision and control. A potential frontline unit in the future war against mutants. You will take these up against MAX Force, the face of the current threat."

"Yeah, they look shiny and all, but one little problem here homie." Roses let off, looking them over. "But it ain't like you can look up the heroes in the yellow pages, know what I'm sayin'? How we gonna find the dimwits to make'em look like Swiss cheese?

"My employer has stated that he is willing to accept... Collateral damage." The man said, shrugging. "If they want to lull the public to trusting them they will come to fight you if you break enough things."

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

"That was an... interesting assembly." Conrad let off, looking up at Alex as the larger teen shrugged as they walked the halls, other students going up and down the passage.

"Tell me about it." Alex said, shrugging as he looked at the schedule again. "Where the _hell_ is chem anyway?"

"Lab's down the hall, you're going the right way." They heard, turning about to see a taller youth in a sweater. He was about Reese's height and bore brown hair, but had striking red sunglasses on his face. "Place is a maze till you get used to it."

"I suck at mazes too." Alex said, shrugging. "Yeah, we're new. I'm Alex, and this here is Conrad."

"Scott. Nice to meet you both." The young man said, waving as he started back on his way. "Hope to see you around."

"Nice enough guy." Alex said as he walked back down the hall.

"Looks like it. Crazy shades though." Conrad replied. Sure enough, as Scott had said they came up to the door to the chemistry lab.

"I ought a get me a pair." Alex said as they entered.

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

"God damned combination..." Rayn said as she glared at the lock on her locker. She turned her eyes to the paper slip in her hands. Yup, right locker. Still didn't work with the combination though. She looked back at the lock.

Lock to paper. Paper to lock.

Raising a fist up she punched the locker, putting a dent in it next to a dent that was already there.

The locker gave no response to it's unworthy opponent.

"The locks here are tricky." She heard, turning her head to the German accented voice.

She heard a cat call in the back of her head, looking the teen over. Nice black hair, a bit long at the sides, cute, devilish face and a knee melting accent.

Cutie alert.

"More like a pain in the ass." She said as the boy looked at the paper and started input the combination.

"The trick is to give it a little push up at the end..." He said, lifting the lock up after the last number.

The lock was defeated and opened.

"Thanks." Rayn said, giving a wide smile as she opened the locker up, slipping in a few books. "You're a life safer, umm..."

"Kurt. Kurt Wagner." He said, sounding more like 'Kurt Vagner' with his accent.

"Reina Chauntelle." She said, smiling back. "My friends call me Rayn. Thanks again. I gotta get ready for lunch."

"Not a problem." He said, a black youth with buzzed, dyed blonde hair moving to flank him. "See you around!"

"Yeah, see ya!"

"Dude..." Evan whispered to Kurt as she exited earshot, down the hall. "Babe with a totally hot ass."

"Tell me about it." Kurt said, laughing a bit. "She looks as good going as she does coming."

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

"Damn, damn, damn..." Ava rattled off to herself as she ran down the hall. "Gonna be no tables left..."

Ava had wound up talking with a few football players during class. And by 'talking' she meant 'flirting up a storm' with all three. One of them, the blonde, had to have a girlfriend, the redheaded chick, because she was _pissed_ off. She gave a wave to her once she noticed, no sense aggravating everyone on the first day after all, and backed off on Mr. Hot Blonde Guy. The redhead seemed to get the subtle message that she was easing off her guy.

Her guy missed the memo and when she left the redhead was tearing a verbal strip off him.

She spent a few minutes trying to find the damned cafeteria before someone pointed. Upon arrival she looked about, trying to find the designated hottie table.

There were a few cute guys at the various tables, but all of them were full. Pouting she clutched her lunch bag, made up by Parson who was sure to make cold cuts better than anything here, she looked about for a table, passing up the two hotties at the table with the fat guy and dirty looking boy.

She could smell him from there.

She noticed a table with a lone girl at it, cute looking brown haired thing who was on the petite side, and sat down opposite of her, surprising her. "Mind if I snag the spot? Nothing better."

"Yeah, sure." The girl said, shrugging and picking at her lunch. "Must have got here late; most seats are full already."

"Noticed." Ava said, pulling out the sandwich in her bag. She'd have rather found a table full of the opposite sex to sit down with but seats were full at the moment. "Kinda new to be honest. Avalon Bronte's the name. But call me Ava."

"Katherine Pryde." The girl said, smiling back as she leaned over the table. "Call me Kitty." She said looking over at another table. "Hot guy over there."

"Oh, where?" Ava said, looking over her shoulder, searching. She was eyeing the crowd, not sure who Kitty was talking about.

"He's sitting with my friend Rogue. Girl with the stripe in her hair. Not sure who the other girl is." Kitty said as Ava spotted the girl, then in turn the boy.

"Oh, you mean Reese?" Ava said kind of disappointed.

It wasn't that Reese wasn't hot, he was; great body, handsome but boyish face, strong and more. He was eye candy. Hell, so were Alex and Conrad to be blunt.

Unfortunately while Reese wasn't opposed to having fun he lacked the wild streak she preferred in guys. Actually, if she had to tell the truth he could be a damned hard ass when he wanted to be, and as the team leader he had no issue at all with throwing his weight around. Three months ago he had learned that Ava had been street racing with one of the Lancers and nearly flipped his lid. She knew he had a mad on about unsafe driving and that the fastest way to piss him off was to drink down a few beers and say you were driving home. When she got home he told her, in no uncertain terms, that she was to clean all the girls' bathrooms in the Mansion for a week. She told him he wasn't the boss of her and to stick it. He repeated his command and tacked on another week. So she tattled to Richard Maxwell about him bossing her around. Maxwell agreed that he was wrong, which made her smile.

Then he told her to clean the girls' _and _boys' bathrooms for four weeks.

The lesson learned; when Reese told you to take your medicine you take your damn medicine before Maxwell gave you even more.

"You know him?" Kitty asked, blinking as the purple haired girl said something at Reese's table. They couldn't hear it, but Reese was chuckling and skunk-stripe, Rogue, spat out the soda she was sipping on before exclaiming something in shock.

"Same boarding school, run by Mister Maxwell. Richard Maxwell, Maximum Corp." Ava explained. "Supposedly wants to give opportunities to us. I say he's just lonely and wants a bunch a people in the Mansion."

Maxwell, like Xavier, used the boarding school excuse as a way to veil what they were actually gathered for. It was bought by everyone she met, even those who should know better.

She still didn't know why. "He's not the type to be a player, so I'm kinda surprised he's hanging out with two chicks."

"Well I know Rogue can be good company." Kitty said as she ate her lunch. "Once you get past the whole stand-offish stuff she does."

"You know..." Ava whisper softly. "He's still single..."

"Hey, I'm checking guys out, not looking for a hook up." Kitty let off, waving a hand as Ava shrugged.

"Just saying." Ava let off. If the truth had to be told Ava wanted to hook that guy up with someone.

If he got laid he might be less of a hard ass on her.

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

"So I would think that by generating the proper wavelength field it would be, more than probable, to manipulate a sub space field on condition that the translocation technology that will propel the world forwards, but the echelon of technology compulsory to achieve this is at present beyond us, possibly for the next hundred years; unless, of course, a considerable breakthrough is made."

Pietro Maximoff was a guy who just wanted to maximize his own pleasure. So what if it came at the expense of others? That was their problem.

So he'd thought he'd pick up a chick, see how far he would get with her. He spotted the geeky looking black girl who, while very, very petite, was very cute. So he decided to try an opening line based on Star Trek and joked that he bet she couldn't wait for those teleporters to be made.

His entire lunch hour, now, was spent listening to Cassandra Blake explain, calmly and rationally with way too much detail, the potential science between no less than _three_ means of teleportation. It was just his luck for him to run into a girl twice as smart as Albert Einstein and twice as boring. He sighed as she started to babble on a fourth means of teleportation she just started to theorize.

Lunch wouldn't be over soon enough.

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

"No, seriously, Master Chief would wipe the floor with Duke Nukem. I don't care how badass he is, the Duke ain't got the armour the Chief does."

"Duke don't need armour, sugar, not after the shrink ray hits."

Rogue resisted the urge to giggle at the silly agreement she and Reese had gotten involved in with him supporting Master Chief of the Halo games and her supporting Duke Nukem of his self titled games.

She had forgotten how they got to that argument or why. Hell she didn't even really play the games, just watched others play them. Evan had a copy of Duke Nukem Three D on his computer with various other titles and she had, more than once found him swearing at the screen as he slaughtered pig cops.

That game was weird.

And behind them was poor Risty, her head going back and forth like a tennis match.

She had never really had friends like these, or just friends to start with.

She was close with the people at the mansion, but she saw them as just teammates at first. It really took a bit before she decided she could call any of them her friends.

Well, maybe not Scott. She still had a bit of a crush on him.

Or Jean, she didn't really care for little miss perfect.

Reese and Risty, meanwhile, had both hit it off with her from the start. With Risty she expected that they'd bond a bit, she had a look to her that Rogue herself had; unique, different and against the norm. It was the fact that she was buddy-buddy with Reese that surprised her. He looked more like a jock than anything else and seemed like a straight laced kid who would have probably tossed her by the wayside after he found where he needed to go, ditching the weird looking girls. Surprisingly not only was he interested in hanging out with her and Risty, but was pretty funny when he wanted to be. That had lead to their argument of Master Chief versus Duke Nukem.

"Hey, Rist, back me up here, will ya?" Reese asked, looking over his shoulder at Risty.

"Oh no, I'm quite fine." Risty said waving her hands defensively. "I'm fine being out of a conversation with two people who will put Spartan Lasers and Shrink Rays to my head, thank you."

"Lance! Just forget it!" A voice let off, making all three face forwards.

"Oh, this looks about as fun as trackless roller coaster..." Reese said, sighing.

In front of the school was a green jeep with three male youths in it and one standing outside of it. Whatever was said next wasn't heard by them as the shaggy brown haired boy talked to the girl.

She had her back to Reese but looked cute and petite, maybe five foot two, five foot four at the most. She had hand on her hips and seemed to be glaring at the boy. She wore jeans that showed off a cute butt, pink over shirt and jeans and her brown hair was up in a ponytail that came down to her shoulders.

"Kitty and Lance." Rogue said next to him. "She's my roommate and he's nothin' but trouble." She added as Reese spotted Ava approaching the pair now from one direction, with a tall guy in sunglasses approaching from the other.

"Lance, you can be such a jerk sometimes." Kitty said as she tried to leave, the boy halting her by grabbing her wrist.

"Alvers, leave her alone."

"Yeah, what slim said." Another voice kicked in, Ava, Kitty realized. "Before I decide that I need to abuse the fact that girl's can get away with things that boys can't." She said, walking up, hips swaying a bit as she did.

Kitty tried to hold her tongue; she really wished Ava hadn't show up right now. She could just phase out of Lance's grip, but with Ava so close she might have noticed something. She felt the boy's grip tighten; him telling her he knew it too.

"Yeah." Lance spat back, looking down at the new girl. "Like what?"

"Oh gee, I dunno... Maybe..." Ava let off, turning her side to Lance as she tapped her chin, pausing for though. "_This._"

Sergeant Paul Smith was an expert at Krav Maga, an Israeli martial art form that borrowed and stole from other forms. It was all about simply beating the opponent to a pulp with very little flash, using both pre-emptive and counter attacks, going for the vulnerable spots and winning fast. He had taught that to each of the MAX Force team members.

So she was more than able to do what she did, twisting her body and punching the guy in the jaw hard enough to not only make him let go but fall backwards to the ground, his back hitting the jeep. The three boys in the jeep gawked as she took a step forward, fist raised up. A firm grip on her upper arm was the only thing keeping the boy from getting another fist to face encounter. "I think he got the picture Ava."

Turning her head she saw that Reese was the one with the grip on her arm, the two girls with him at lunch flanking him with the gothic one cracking her knuckles before giving a glove a slight tug. The boys in the van flinched; Ava figured the message she said was 'want me to get serious?' and the response was 'no thank you.'

"Well he _was_ asking for it." Ava said, pulling her arm from Reese's grip.

"True that, love, but I don't think he wants seconds." The purple haired one said as Lance stood up, massaging his jaw.

"Why don't you leave Alvers; before I consider giving you thirds." Scott added, lifting a finger to his glasses, adjusting them.

"...Come on guys." Lance snarled out, circling the jeep to enter the driver's side. "We'll deal with this later." He said before starting the vehicle and slamming his foot to the petal, the jeep roaring off down the road.

"By the way, nice punch." Scott said, finally looking at the long haired girl before spotting Rogue. "New friends."

"Huh? Oh yeah, sorry, got a little caught in the moment." Rogue said before pointing to her friends. "This is Reese and Risty. We met at the assembly. Guys, this is Scott. Scott Summers."

"And I'm Kitty. Kitty Pryde." Kitty replied, putting her arms behind her back with a smile.

"Avalon. Just call me Ava." Ava added, smirking lightly.

"Nice to meet you two, Scott, Kitty." Reese said, nodding to both. "But I gotta be going. I gotta give a people a lift home.

"No problem. See you around." Scott said as Reese nodded to the others.

"Later." He said before walking off down the sidewalk.

"Hey Rogue." Kitty said, grabbing her friends arm. "I want details!"

"Oh gawd..." Rogue let off, sighing.

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

"Whoa-ho-ho-ho! This is the _shit_ homies!" Roses let off inside his armour as he flew up to the next rooftop. He and jack were following G-Flow as they flew from rooftop to rooftop. They were given basic instructions on the systems and when the men left they were told to go find and kill MAX Force.

All three of them agreed that going after the heroes was going to happen, but G-Flow insisted they pilot the armours around a bit to get used to the handling. Night had just fallen now and G-Flow landed on a rooftop, looking down at the city. Somewhere, down there, MAX Force was scurrying about playing hero.

They'd learn what happened when you messed with the Easy Riders.

"I say no more waste time." Jack let off, landing next to G-Flow. "I say we go find revenge on heroes."

"Yeah, what my homie said, home boy." Roses said as he landed next to them as well. "I'm done playing flight sim, now I wanna go play Street Fighter on some spandex wearing asses."

"Glad we're in agreement." G-Flow said as he walked to the edge. "And I know where to make some noise." He said looking downwards.

There was a lit soccer field there with bleachers crowded with people. A high school soccer game no doubt with lots of kids running around, playing ball for scholarships.

If this didn't send MAX Force running to them, maybe they'd go rob a bank.

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

"And playing midfield for Bayville High is Taryn Fujioka!" A voice called out as the girl ran in between pom-pom shaking cheerleaders to the crowd's approval. Rogue looked on with a sigh. She and the other X-Men, along with Professor Xavier, came along in the name of school spirit, but Scott and the others were also there to cheer on little miss perfect, Jean Grey. Worst part was that she couldn't hang out with Risty, she said she still had to move stuff into her new place. She might have been able to hang out with Reese, but he had to drive the other Maxwell Students and Richard Maxwell himself in a van.

Over the course of the day Xavier had overheard that Maxwell was sending students to the Bayville High School. He had told them that Richard Maxwell was a former student and friend of his and a very, very rich CEO. In fact his company supplied Xavier with a number of components for the Danger Room and security in the mansion. After sometime the man had decided to go out and find students, like Xavier had only normal human beings, to better them and give them opportunities they wouldn't have otherwise.

It sounded weird to her, but then again it must happen elsewhere since Xavier did the same thing without anyone batting an eyelash.

Hopefully she could get away long enough to find him once he showed up.

Still it was worth coming out to see Xavier smile again, a genuine one and not a plastered fake one. The man had a near panic attack when MAX Force exploded out into the open revealing themselves as heroes. Even with the cheap rename to metahuman it was clear that they were mutants and all well trained, not unlike the X-Men. Xavier had used every resource at his disposal to learn about them and had come up empty handed. Meanwhile he also had to deal with some of the media frenzy.

And the media was worked up into a hell of a whirl over MAX Force. Some news casts called them superheroes, others menaces and others tried to take a middle stance; neither condemning nor condoning them. Almost all of them brought out some scientist or researcher to offer a theory on how they got their powers and what it could mean. That's when people started contacting Xavier who had written a book entitled 'Beyond Darwin: A Look at the Future and Possibilities of Evolution and Humankind.'

It was a text that Xavier had used as a form of hypothetical question to humanity of 'what if people evolved powers' but not on the scale that mutants really had. It was more along the lines of being twice as strong as a normal man or faster, or maybe the ability to mimic what a person's seen. He had deliberately avoided powers he knew existed or could exist, like optic blasts, telekinesis, teleportation, weather control and shape shifting to avoid coming off as 'too sci-fi' or spooking the public. Before it was only a moderate seller picked up and studied only those who appreciated evolutionary science. Now more people in the realms of science, and even a few others, were reading it over trying to connect the possibility that Xavier theorized 'X-Gene' could be the source of MAX Force's powers.

Xavier had, thus far, refused on camera interviews but gave answers on the phone to some questions, enough to be quoted on a few news casts.

The other students, as one would expect, had varying opinions of the mutant team that was publicly fighting. Some, like Bobby Drake and Ray Crisp, argued that it should be them out there, or at least the X-Men, being heroes and saving the day. Amara and Rahne, who were a bit more level headed, argued that the exposure could, and would, bite them all in the ass. Jamie, meanwhile, had decided to idolize them, mostly the one with the hood, for being 'cool.'

What was worse was that Kitty had a crush on the armoured one, Kurt the blonde girl and Evan the blue-haired Storm clone. Scott and Jean were the only ones outright condemning them, and in both cases the arguments weren't as strong as they were as a week ago.

Scott, Rogue knew, was going to tow Xavier's line and would be too loyal to his dream to sabotage it, but he also wanted to be in the front line for mutant rights and to him he felt like he was on the sidelines while others were fighting. Scott disagreed with the methods, but thought that MAX Force was fighting to show that mutants could be a force for good.

Jean was a bit firmer, but saw things along the same lines save she didn't want to _fight,_ as in physically fight, for the rights, but try to get them as peacefully as possible. She also agreed that the costumed vigilantes meant the best, but was worried it might not work out for them all.

"Rounding out the team, Bayville's star forward, Jean Grey!" They heard the announcer call out as Jean followed along the path that Taryn took earlier.

"Yours I assume." She heard, turning, along with the others, to see a well dressed man standing next to him. "Looks like a fit one."

"That she is." Xavier said, laughing softly. "Richard. Good to see you again." He said as Richard walked over and shook hands with Xavier. "Where are your students at?"

"Reese took them all over to get some sodas before hitting the bleachers." He replied, shrugging with a smile. "Shouldn't be too long before they-"

Anything he had to add was cut off as explosions rocked the field.

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

"Okay you guys, let's get ready to _rock this place!_"

"Bad pun Lance, bad pun." Todd, now Toad, groaned. All of the Brotherhood were dressed up in their battle costumes on the outskirts of the field. They were near the cameras where the broadcast was happening, but out of sight.

This was amazing, considering Blob's bulk.

After that girl with the brown and pink hair socked him in the face he got more than a bit annoyed. Some stupid powerless human just walked up and punched him like he was some nerd, not a man with awesome powers. If she knew that she'd be too afraid to touch him!

Then he thought back to the speech the new Principal had made. He wanted his students to display their unique talents? Then by all means, he'd rock the world to the core! That would get Kitty's attention. And once she got a good look at what he would do she would... Well, he didn't know really. Maybe the nice guy approach was how you won a girl like Kitty over.

Too bad he was done being a nice guy.

They would expose themselves to the world and the X-Dorks with them! And unlike MAX Force there wouldn't be any masks hiding any of them! The world would either tremble at their power or fall before it.

"So, when are we making our move?" Quicksilver asked, leaning against the wall. His feet looked to be flat against the ground, but the dust being kicked up around the right one was all Lance needed to know that he was tapping that foot at a speed his eyes couldn't even register.

"We'll wait for Kelly." Lance declared, crossing his arms. "I want him to get the front row seat to..." Lance stopped speaking as he saw three flames in the sky appear from nowhere. "What in the-?"

The flames approached quickly, Lance figuring they were missiles of some kind, before the rushed past and slammed into the field, exploding and sending a shower of dirt up, the earth raining onto them.

"Hey! They're stealing out show, yo!" Toad let off and three large figures flew overhead, landing onto the soccer field.

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

"Yeah baby! This is fun!" G-Flow shouted out as he opened fire with the machine guns in the suit's arms, the girls on the field, in soccer and cheerleading uniforms, scattering as bullets kicked up dirt. Beside him Roses opened fire on the flaming hawk statue with another rocket, the projectile soaring past the air and blowing it apart, the hawk falling down on top of a soccer player while China Jack fired into the bleachers themselves.

Most of the audience had fled already, but some huddled at the bottom, using it as cover as the rocket detonated showing them with debris. Did they live? Did they die?

He didn't care. He was thrilled at the sounds of fear and stomped towards a redhead lying prone on the ground.

She had run into another girl in the panic they had caused, heads colliding. She had taken the worse of the two and was just now rolling over to push herself up while the other girl was running off the field. He used the foot of the suit to kick her in the ribs, rolling her over and knocking the wind from her lungs. She coughed and curled into a fetal position, clutching her sides, as he aimed a gun right at her face.

Meanwhile Scott had gotten his senses back after the rocket attack on the bleachers. The other X-Men and Maxwell were lying prone, in various states of confusion and disorientation. Where the _hell_ did those guys come from? A comic book?

He was hearing that a lot lately about MAX Force...

Xavier was out cold, a gash on his head from a flying piece of wood to blame, but he was still breathing. Rogue was dazed but getting onto her hands and knees. Kurt had looked up, flashing a thumbs up, signalling he was unharmed. And Kitty, while ducking, was untouched, as per norm with her. Evan was struggling to rise, blood trickling out of the back of his head indicating him own wounds. Maxwell shook himself off and pushed Xavier onto his back to examine him. And Jean...

With a start he looked out to the field. The man in the machine was aiming a gun at her head. He tried to draw up his right arm to reach for his glasses, but a large piece of debris had fell on his chest, his concern for everyone else and the confusion causing him to overlook it. He pushed it off just as the guns open fired.

And Jean... got sucked into the thing's shadow? He gotten up to a crouch as Kurt's shadow bulged, causing the German to scream, a very girlish scream as well, as a black hooded figure emerged up from it, Jean in his arms. He set her down before going the way he came.

"Get her out of here." The man commanded before he was gone.

For the first time ever, Scott thought as he moved to Jean's side, he was happy they had MAX Force around.

The armoured man meanwhile was confused as to why his latest victim just vanished when a green blast impacted his side, causing him to stumble. Thanks to the time spent learning to pilot he didn't fall, righting himself and turning to his attacker.

Sure enough, there was MAX Force, five members strong and the sixth emerging from a shadow.

Literally emerging, like there was an elevator under him.

Spartan meanwhile took stock of the situation. They had just gotten their refreshments once the first rockets exploded. He had lead the team aside so they could use the MAX Activators to change into costume and told Shadow to teleport ahead to scout and save anyone he could.

Turned out to be a good call and he followed it by having Dynamo blast one of the machines to make sure the armoured thugs had something more pressing to fight than innocents, but he knew that any additional surprise factor was gone once the first hit landed. He didn't want a straight up fight with these armed goons, but it seemed that what he got.

Fine. He could live with that. "If you guys are done making a mess..." He started, forming a spear in one hand, his shield in the other. "I think it's time you all went to jail."

"Ya?" The lead suit said, as the other two flanked him. "You ain't sending us back!"

"... I think I'd remember three clowns in powered armour." Spartan replied.

"Yeah man, who are they." Dynamo asked, pointing to them. "I don't recall seeing them."

"Last night." Roses replied pointing at them. "Chop Shop! We're the Easy Riders!"

"Never heard of ya!" Tempest shouted back.

"Whoever they are, they're not here to play nice." Spartan replied. "And neither are we! _Let's max it up!_" He shouted charging as the weapons began to sound with gunfire.

Scott, meanwhile, took stock of his own situation. He couldn't risk his team right now. Xavier was hurt, Jean was hurt, Evan was hurt and everyone else was pulling themselves together. "We need to get out of here!" He let off.

"But what about those guys?" Kurt said, aiming a finger to the battle no raging, bullets deflecting off a shield and Blondie while the others circled around the aim of the guns.

"Like it or not, and I don't like it, we are in no condition to help." Scott said, as he grabbed Jean's arms, dragging her towards the others.

"We need to move somewhere else." Maxwell said, cradling Xavier. "I can warp us to Xavier's, but we need to be out of view."

"Right. Let's go behind the bleachers, it should-"

"Help! Someone help me!" Scott turned around, moving to the guardrail and looking down at the field. He could see Taryn Fujioka down there, her body trapped under the hawk statue.

"Damnit..." He let off before turning to Rogue. "Get everyone out of here without me!"

"But Scott!" Rogue began as Scott shook his head.

"She needs help, and we can't expose ourselves to her. I'll be fine." He said before leaping over the guardrail to the ground.

"Gawd..." Rogue let off and she helped Jean to her feet, moving under her shoulder. Jean was still coughing, unable to speak and was stumbling as she was led out, but maintained enough of her senses to keep moving as Kurt did the same for Evan, Maxwell carrying Xavier out and leading the way.

G-Flow, meanwhile, grinned as an energy spear deflected off his thick armour. He swung at the hero who ducked before a blast wave of sound knocked him back. Even so he kept his balance, unharmed.

MAX Force had divided and paired off on each of the man in machines, with Spartan and Electra tackling G-Flow, Dynamo and Blondie fighting China Jack, leaving Holy Roses to Tempest and Shadow. So far the Exo-Suits were working as advertised; nothing was getting through. He pulled the trigger, bullets bouncing off Spartan's shield as he brought it up to block his gunfire.

"This all you got?" Spartan let off as he back up slowly. "I thought you'd have lasers, or lightsabers built into it too!"

"You dumb little shit!" G-Flow let off as he approached, ceasing fire to backhand the shield.

Spartan had let it go, the weapon flying off and made another just before the bullets poured back on.

"I'm going to enjoy this!" G-Flow said as he laughed out just as everything stopped working.

Needless to say his laughing stopped with his suit.

His suit had stopped moving, guns had stopped firing and then the front popped open, Electra standing beside him, a hand on his suit's leg.

"Thankfully your suit runs off an old OS." Electra said as Spartan walked over, grabbing G-Flow with one hand and pulling him from the suit. "Very elementary to hack for me."

"Now then, how's about another round without the suit?" Spartan asked as G-Flow chuckled, shaking his head. "Too bad." Spartan replied, rearing the shield back before smashing G-Flow's face.

He wondered, G-Flow thought as he passed out, if that was his tooth spinning in the air.

Scott himself was running over to Taryn, trapped under the statue of the Bayville Hawk.

"Scott! Help me! Please!" She cried, panicked as she struggled under the hawk. One of the wings was blown off, as was the talons. He guessed that she must have tripped and fell as the statue was sent crashing to the ground, trapping her under it's back. She was luckier than a rabbit born with a four leafed clover, he thought to himself; if the statue had landed an inch to the left or right she might have been seriously injured or killed. As it was she was just trapped, pinned under the bird.

"Hang on!" Scott said, reassuring her. "I'll get you out of here!" He said before grabbing at the statue, lifting. The statue was made of metal and was very heavy, but Scott was the fittest person in the mansion, outside of Logan. In addition the fight or flight responses the attack brought out had his adrenaline pumping, pushing him beyond limits he knew he had. Grunting the statue lifted up an inch and a half, allowing the girl to crawl out from under it, scrapping her knees on the dirt as she clawed at the ground, pulling herself to freedom. Once clear, Scott dropped the statue, panting, before his training kicked back in. "Can you stand?" He asked, kneeling by her.

"No..." She said, tears streaming over her face. "M-my ankle... I think I twisted it!"

"It's okay." He said soothingly as he picked her up, bridal style in his arms before running with her off the field, the girl clutching his neck. "I'll get you out of here."

Right now he may not have been able to fight, but he could still do what he was taught; how to save lives.

"_Die!Die!Die!Die!Die!Die!Die!Die!Die!Die!Die!Die!Die!Die!Die!_" China Jack let off as he fired on Blondie at a pace reserved for fast forwarded sound bites. Dynamo's energy blast slammed into his side, making him turn to face the larger man who was leaping at him, smashing his glowing fist to his chest plate with enough force to dent the armour. Jack growled and backhanded him away, making him skid back before aiming a rocket. He grinned as he pulled the trigger.

He stopped grinning once he saw that Blondie had leapt up and clutched herself to the rocket pod.

The explosion propelled her off his suit and onto the grass, but it also blew open the armour at the shoulder, cracking the faceplate and dazing him. Dynamo took the opportunity to jump back at him, this time grabbing a hand full of plate armour and pulling back. The weakened plating resisted for a moment before peeling back like a can of sardines. China Jack grinned weakly before Dynamo's meaty fist slammed into his gut twice in secession, making him black out.

Roses fell shortly afterwards, Shadow puncturing his armour with a pickaxe made of darkness and Tempest pouring in pure electricity soon afterwards, disabling the unit. Spartan made note of the film crew, amazed they were still rolling and hadn't looked for cover yet. He gave them a wave as Roses was pulled from his own suit and sent into a Shadow induced sleep. "Okay you guys, boys in blue won't be long. We need to bail." He said before running off the field, looking for a spot to turn back.

He still wondered who those guys were, and more importantly, where they got that powered armour.

But that was something he'd need to deal with later.

Moving back under cover the four Brotherhood boys looked each other over. "So... Now what?" Blob asked, a cricket chirping in the night.

"Man, this blows. We were upstaged before we even _got to the stage_." Quicksilver added with a groan. Toad's tongue lashed out.

The chirping stopped.

"Man, I'm blowing this joint." Toad let off after chewing the insect. "Sides, CSI is gonna be on soon."

"Yeah, the chick that plays Willows is hot." Blob added as they started back towards Lance's jeep. Lance sighed and took the bowl shaped dome off his head.

Oh well, at least he can try being a nice guy tomorrow.

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

"So MAX Force was on hand..." Xavier let out, an ice pack held to his head as he looked over his students in the infirmary.

Jean was sitting in the next bed just now putting her shirt back on, for awhile leaving it to her bra on to maintain modesty. Her ribs were taped up to cover the bruising on her side and to help the two cracked ribs heal. The black eye she also sported was also swelling as she put her own ice pack to it.

"Much as I hate to say it, it's a good thing they showed up when they did." Logan half said, half growled. Evan nodded in his own seat, next to Jean. For a moment they were worried he had a concussion but he, thankfully, didn't. Scott was the only one not present; he had called from the hospital saying he'd be back soon.

"As much as I hate to say it, I agree." Xavier added before frowning. "But that's not my main concern."

"MAX Force showing up isn't what bothers you?" Kurt asked, blinking. He knew Xavier was more than upset at the ragtag superheroes and that mentioning them would sour his mood.

"Those powered suits are not made overnight." Xavier began. "And they seemed to be built with combating mutants in mind; they seemed to have been trying to draw MAX Force out on purpose."

"Wait..." Rogue said, pushing off the wall she was leaning against and walking closer. "You mean you think someone was building things to kill mutants? Since _before_ they showed up?"

"It would take years to design those armours." Xavier said as he removed the ice for a moment. "And the fact that they put three criminals in them suggests that, at best, the one who made them is just trying to kill mutants and making sure they cannot be connected to the crime."

"And at worse?" Evan asked, fingering the stitches in his head.

"Same thing." Logan let off, snarling a bit. "Only at the worst anyone who gets killed is an 'acceptable casualty of war,' even if they're normal humans."

"We will need to prepare for this." Xavier said, lowering his eyes as they took a downcast look. "It seems things maybe turning against us, and MAX Force is, this time, not to blame."


	5. Chapter IV

Notes...

A-Rog: No worries. And I'm trying. I expanding on Dynamo's powers a tad, but I'm not planning on making him unstoppable, just better able to take a blow.

BitchAmI: Expect her to sing more than anyone will want her to. Ever.

HokkaidoMaster: Maybe not crushes, but a foundation to work from.

Ember Ice: Spelling is fixed. Ava and Kitty becoming friends was something I made up on the fly.

Blue-Red-Ninja/lordoftoast: I Shadow's powers and fighting style would be like a toned down Alex Mercer from Prototype. Only with less people getting eaten alive.

Cloudy-TheNightMareQueen: Thank you.

Chapter IV: Press Release

Rogue let off a soft growl at the end of the school day, walking out the front door. Lance had stepped up his attempts to win Kitty over and while she wasn't swept off her feet she was noticing him. Why was beyond her, but she did.

Lance was the quintessential bad boy, a jerk with a heart of gold. The problem was his upbringing was going from foster home to foster home, living under abusive men and stern men who meant well but didn't know how to deal with Lance. He came out the other end bitter and, while not broken, severely cracked with that heart of gold buried under a lifetime of negativity. He was more than willing to bully and use force to get his way and to cheat to get ahead. There was a hidden sensitive side in him and Rogue honestly though he could be a good fit for Kitty, if and only if he matured and quit being a thug.

Given Lance's company, the Brotherhood, was not a shining example of the best mankind had to offer it wouldn't happen anytime soon, she'd bet.

"You look like someone pissed in your Fruit Loops this morning." She heard, turning to see Risty there.

"It's nothing, don't worry about it." Rogue replied waving it off. She turned to look forwards, seeing Reese pull up front with his car, a dark blue Dodge Charger. He gave it two honks before sticking his head out the window.

"Hey, I thought we are all going to the mall, what you ladies doing?" He called out. "Standing around looking pretty?"

"Of course." Risty giggled out, running to the car, going to the passenger side. "Shotgun!"

"Whatever." Rogue let off as she hoped into the back seat. "To the mall, chauffer!" She jokingly let off.

"As you wish, milady." Reese joking replied as he drove off, laughing a bit as the car rolled off down the road.

"Well, well, isn't someone in a chipper mood?" Risty said, smirking lightly. "Something good happen?"

"Yeah. I found three fifty in change lost in the couch." Reese replied, smirking back. The truth was he and Ava had driven off on a tip from one of Maxwell's sources the other night. He knew Alex and Rayn were doing something as well, but he wasn't sure what. Either way, Spartan and Tempest had found one hell of a stash house and busted a small drug ring.

That was enough to make him happy, particularly after the attack on the field two nights ago. The icing was Commissioner Armstrong was on camera with a reporter on the scene, claiming his officers made the bust, only to have one of his junior officers come up to him, on camera, with a card Spartan had left.

All broadcasted on TV that morning.

He hoped that the officer kept his job but it was nice to see that bulldog get knocked down a few pegs.

"What about you two?" Reese asked as he made a turn. "Anything good happen?"

"Well yes." Risty began, smiling. "I woke up, went to the bathroom and had a wonderful bowel movement."

"Okay, seriously, next one of you who mentions what you do in a bathroom that does not involve a sex toy is getting kicked out of the car." Reese said, wincing. "_While the car is moving_."

"Does a blow-dryer count?"

"No."

"Dang."

Rogue let off a soft chuckle in the back. "Sorry sugar, no toys for this girl. All hands on."

"...Thank you; I'll have that image in my head tonight. And the next night." Reese let off, sighing. "Maybe a few more nights while performing... something in the bathroom."

"I thought you broke up with Rosie Palms." Rogue joked, Risty snickering in turn.

"Yeah. Turns out she's a lesbian and wants in your panties." Reese shot back, Risty's snickering picking up.

"What if I ain't got any?" Rogue replied, smirking in his rear view mirror.

"...Then you should wear shorter skirts."

"Oh my god..." Risty let out as she broke into laughter. "Keep it up and I'll rock the car off the road!"

"That'd suck." Reese agreed. "The obituaries would read 'Rogue, Reese and Risty. Killed and murdered. By Rosie Palms.'"

Laughter filled the car as Rogue clutched at her sides. After the attack by the Exo-Suits and Lance's obsession with Kitty it was good to laugh.

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

Scott sighed as he tossed his books into the back seat of his car as he watched Rogue pile into the car with her friend. If there was _one_ good thing from the other night it was that both Reese and Risty weren't present. Rogue would have been devastated if she made two friends only for them to be hurt right away.

The girl's soccer team, meanwhile, was in one sorry state. Both Jean and Taryn were going to be out of commission for a week or more at least, meaning they would miss the finals leaving the team without two of their best players along with another two players who were injured. In addition the team's coach was trampled in the mayhem and the assistant coach was struck in the back with a piece of wooden shrapnel that lodged itself next to his heart.

He was recovering now, but word was it was _very_ touch and go.

And then there was the fact that they were going against the Lodestar High School's team. With their mascot being the Cougar their school was billing the upcoming match as the Hungry Cougars against the Wounded Hawks.

Principal Kelly, however, refused to let the team lie down and die. The rest of the team emerged from the pep rally with little to no injuries. He took the team aside and began a small speech that started with 'teamwork; it makes the dream work.' As of now Sally Floras and Tammy Underlay were taking the forward and midfield roles Jean and Taryn had while Maxine Sola and a girl he can't say he knew, Penny Westward, took Floras' and Underlay's places.

Who took _their_ places warming the bench was something Scott decided not to ask.

Lastly Kelly put Jean and Taryn back on the team. Although with Jean's cracked ribs and Taryn's wounded ankle meant neither could play they were _still_ the two best players on the team so the Principal appointed them as the temporary Coach and Assistant Coach. Jean had gotten down to work, taking over the duties while Taryn helped as best she could while using crutches to get around. Between the two of them and the shuffle in the team's ranks they had gone from the Wounded Hawks to Bandaged but Battle Ready Hawks. The team was pulling together and the girls were working their collective asses off to get ready for a match against a healthy and top tier team.

"Scott! Hold up!" He heard as he reached for the car door. He paused, turning about, seeing Taryn hobble towards him on her crutches, her right foot off the ground. He smiled a bit, noting the pom-poms stapled to the sides of the crutches at the middle and near the top, yet another show of team spirit.

"Taryn! Are you feeling better?" He asked, leaning against his car as she stopped before him.

"I'd feel better if I could play." She said, sighing as she set her foot down, wincing softly.

"I know. Jean's was complaining almost non-stop until Kelly made her the Coach." He said, shaking his head. "I think with something to focus her energy on she'll feel like she's pulling her weight and not staying on the sidelines."

"Yeah, I bet." She replied, smiling a bit before blushing. "Ah, listen, Scott, I never got the chance to thank you for helping me that night." She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear before continuing. "You were a real life saver back there."

"Well, you were in trouble, I was able to help." Scott said, smiling as he reached over, pushing off the car the set a hand on her shoulder. "Sides, it was hectic. I just wish I could have done more than that..."

"Come on Scott, you were there..." Taryn replied gesturing to the field, still full of holes. The girl's team was reduced to practicing in the elementary school's field and Kelly had asked their teachers to allow them to go off and practice and get in shape for the game. "They had _battle suits!_ With _guns!_ And _rockets!"_ She set a hand on Scott's, pulling it off her shoulder and holding it in her hands, squeezing. "MAX Force could only stand up to them because they had _powers_ and even then they had trouble. You could have gotten hurt or worse... I... It would be a lot worse on everyone if that happened..."

Scott had to bite back the fact that _he_ had powers, but she had a point. Even if he _could_ get into the fight after being so disoriented from the near rocket hit, Evan and Jean were out, Rogue would have been useless and it would have been up to him, Kurt and Kitty. And aside from Kitty their effects against the battle armour was anyone's guess while MAX Force, while he didn't see most of the battle, got the job done.

"Besides, even if _they're _superheroes, you're _my _hero." Taryn finished up as Scott blushed softly, coughing lightly.

"Ah, well, thank you." Scott let off, smiling a bit, trying not to look like goof. "I wish I knew what to say to that."

Taryn laughed a bit at that, blushing back a little. "It's okay. I was hoping, well, I want to repay you a bit so, well, you got time tomorrow night? Dinner on me?"

"Ummm, well, sure." Scott replied, taking his hand back to rub the back of his neck. "Uh, when should I pick you up?"

"Can it be around seven?"

"Sure, of course."

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

"Yahhhhoooo!" Kitty let off as she clutched Ava's sides, on the back of her Harley as they rode down the road to Xavier's. They had struck up something of an odd friendship. On one hand Ava was a girly girl like she was, interested in clothes, painting toe nails and trendy clothing. On the other she was also a tomboy who didn't slap and hair pull in fights, didn't mind a little grease on her hands and loved riding fast and hard. The best way, Kitty decided, to describe Ava was a girlish tomboy.

"Not even cracking her hard!" Ava let off as she gave the V-Rod more gas before slowing down and turning into the gates. She rather liked Kitty, which was odd. Normally she tended to annoy other girls. She was a _very_ big flirt, and she knew it annoyed the hell out of most girls she had known. And then there was the fact that she was, in her and others opinion, a grade A hottie. If girls were put on the meat market she would be labelled Top, Grade A Sirloin. She had a sweet ass, big boobs, long legs, a pretty face, toned body and great hair; a total package. She knew it, and had no qualms about wrapping hormonal boys about her finger with it.

Kitty, meanwhile, wasn't put off by it, or at least hid it well. She was friendly, nice and sweet and would be the ideal personality for most guys. She wasn't as hot as Ava was though, almost flat chested to be honest, but she had an adorable quality that was very endearing. All she needed was a push up bra.

Ava pulled up by the front door as Kitty hoped off, setting the helmet onto the back of the bike, securing it. "Thanks for the ride." Kitty said, smiling as Ava gave her a thumbs up.

"No problems. Gotta jet." Ava replied before riding off, heading back to and out of the gates.

"That was a nice bike." Logan let off as he walked over. "Not my colour, but nice bike."

"Oh, that was Ava." Kitty said, before walking to the door of the mansion. "She's cool." She added before phasing past the door, into the building.

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

"Okay, seriously, I am _not a pack mule_." Reese insisted as he groaned. Really, he thought, two girls off shopping? He should have known better. He was carrying six bags of cosmetics, clothes and assorted items. Two were Rogue's, four were Risty's, and none were his.

At least the two girls had figured it might be an idea to put in a token effort and carried a bag each as they walked to the dressing area of the next store.

"Oh relax lover." Risty said, jokingly. "Sides, we're almost done. I just need a new skirt. Saw it online the other day. Maybe a second if something catches the eye."

"Oh goodie." Reese let off sighing before his phone began to vibrate lightly

_You make me smile like the sun_

_Fall outta bed_

_Sing like a bird_

"Aw, man..." He let off, trying to move the three bags on his right arm to the other to free it up.

_Dizzy in my head_

_Spin like a record_

"Here." Rogue said, grabbing the bags as Reese reached to his side, pulling the phone out of it's holster.

_Crazy on a Sunday night_

_You make me dance like a fool_

"Hello." Reese said once he got his phone, the disguised MAX Activator, to his head.

"**Reese, how's it going?" **He heard, Maxwell on the other side.

"Not too bad, just being used as bag rack." Reese replied as he and Rogue waited as Risty walked off into the store, searching for her skirts. "What ya need?"

"**Work related."** Maxwell replied. **"Nothing pressing, there is no rush. I just need to go over something with you when you get back."**

"Oh? What's that?" Reese asked as Risty came back with the skirts, laying them on a bench as she began studying them.

"**Nothing I want to go on about until we're face to face. Don't worry, have fun with your friends."**

"I get ya, just figured I'd ask. "See ya later."

"**Goodbye."**

"What was that about?" Rogue asked as Reese set his phone away.

"Not sure. Mister Maxwell wants to get a hold of me when I get back." He replied, Risty grabbing a skirt and taking into the changing booth. "Doesn't sound pressing, whatever it is."

"If you need to go we can tell Risty we're grabbing a bite tomorrow." Rogue said, pointing a thumb at the change room.

"Nah, it's cool." Reese said, waving his hand. "Sides, I promised you two a dinner... at a fast food joint, yes, but still, dinner."

"Mister Director, where is my close up?" They heard, turning to face Risty who has posing in the skirt.

Well a 'skirt' may have been a generous description of the piece of black cloth, Reese thought as she turned about. It was more like a belt of fabric that covered... not a lot.

"...Bend forwards a bit, see how it acts." Reese said, figuring Risty would just blow him off.

Surprisingly she did bend forwards.

"Red thong? Really?" Rogue asked, eyebrow raised slightly.

"Hate the panty-lines." She said before walking back into the changing room, leaving her two friends.

"... I didn't think she'd bend over." Reese admitted.

"Me either." Rogue added, nodding.

"...Got a nice ass though."

"Mine's nicer."

"Yeah, it is. But I haven't seen it in a thong."

"And you never will."

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

"Need a hand up there?" Conrad asked as he jogged up to the van on the side of the road. He was walking back to the mansion, about to make his turn towards his home as he saw the van. One of the back tires was deflated and flat as a board. He saw someone, a woman by the looks of it, pulling something out of the back, or at least trying too.

"No, I don't need help, ah damn..." She let off, clutching her ribs and stepping back into the open back door of the van.

"You okay?" Conrad asked, concerned as he approached a bit closer. When she turned her face he recognized her.

He asked about her the other day in the hall. This was the girl he rescued as Shadow that night on the field, Jean Grey. "You're Jean, right? Heard you got banged up during the, well..."

"I'm okay. Just a couple of cracked ribs, that's all it is, really." Jean said reassuringly, giving a soft smile. "They're not giving me too much trouble." She assured him, waving him off.

This was a beautiful girl. He thought Ava was a hottie, but Jean was another thing altogether; great body, great smile and that _hair._

If she ever cut it short someone was being arrested for crimes against humanity.

And from what he heard she was also nice and friendly, always a bonus. "Let me help you with that. Replacing a tire can't be fun with your side kicked in." He said reaching in to the carjack, pulling it out.

"Look, really, I can do this." Jean said, setting her hands on her hips. On one hand she didn't really _want_ to change the tire, let alone change it with injured ribs, but she didn't need to seem like some incapable little girl either.

"I'm sure you can." Conrad said as he pulled out the spare tire as well. "But if you hurt yourself I'd feel bad about it later." He said as he knelt down, setting up the jack.

"...Okay, you win, oh shining knight." Jean said, sighing and letting her arms fall to her sides.

"Ha, ha." Conrad let off as he started to crank the jack. "Just don't expect an oil change with it. You want that done, see Ava."

"Who?" Jean asked as the van lifted up.

"We go to Maxwell's together." Conrad replied, shrugging once the tire was off the ground. "She's a decent mechanic too. She actually knows what a transmission is for." He said joked as he moved to the flattened wheel, using another tool to undo the nuts before pulling the tire off. After rolling the new tire over he lifted it up, setting it on the axel. "But my dad popped tires like gum, so this is something I know like the back of my hand." He added as he secured the nuts into place. Once that was done he went back to the jack, lowered the vehicle and started setting the tools and now flat tire back. "There, done. No pain even."

"Thanks." Jean said, letting her hand go past he hair as she smiled. As much as she hated to admit it, she was thankful. She would have taken longer, and it would have been hell on the ribs.

"Oh, d-don't worry about it." Conrad replied, trying not to flush. God she was hot. And damn that smile was just as hot...

It was an effort to not melt into a puddle. "Anyway, I should be going. Just make sure to get the tire fixed, with a patch up it should still be good."

"Hey, wait." Jean called out as Conrad started down the way he came. "I didn't get your name!"

"Conrad! Conrad Wolfe! Maybe I'll see you around!" He said before jogging along the side of the road before turning off.

"Um, yeah. Bye now." Jean said as she went back to the van, climbing inside and turning on the van. Actually, now that she thought of it, she really was thankful, and he was kinda cute.

"Hmm, if he's available maybe I can set him up with someone." She thought as she started back down the road. Really, he was cute and seemed nice enough, so it couldn't hurt.

Speaking of which, she really needed to thank Duncan as well for the flowers and chocolate. She knew it wasn't _just_ a 'get well soon' gift, he was making up for flirting with that girl, who at least stopped goading him on when Jean caught her attention. Not that it stopped him, but he seemed to get the mistake he made and was making up for it.

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

After dropping off Risty and her mountain of things, followed by dropping off Rogue and her mole hill of things, he had returned home. It was just past six thirty as he went up to secret passage way. He entered the code, went down the elevator and then went to the War Room. Walking in he saw Maxwell sitting at the back of the room, watching a news cast that was muted. The caption of 'Heroes or Horrors?' was on the bottom of the screen as the battle from the field played on the TV.

"We got the attention of the public." Maxwell started as he turned to face Reese. "But we didn't capture as many imaginations as much as I hoped; seems we've got a few people unnerved."

"Wait, really?" Reese said as he leaned against a desk. "I've heard nothing but good in the locker rooms at school."

"Teenagers and adults think along different lines." Maxwell explained as he turned to Reese. "Teens want to be cool and fit in while impressing their peers, standing out. Most of all they want to believe the impossible is possible. Adults are more sceptical; they more jaded, more set in their ways, more prone to reject change. But they are still reasonable. They can be made to see that change is not bad, that they need not always be jaded and sceptical. Teens and children believe in MAX Force, but the adults are divided. Some see the good, others only see bad."

"I get ya, I get ya." Reese said, waving his hands. "So, what's the plan?"

"Well I don't have one." Maxwell admitted as he turned back to the screen. "I talked to Smith, Parson and Sims but we've come up with nothing."

"Shouldn't we talk to the press?" Reese asked, pushing off the desk and walking next to his mentor.

"We agreed that has to be done, but if we schedule an interview, even through discreet channels, the police may pick up on it." Maxwell clarified.

"So, we don't use channels." Reese said, pointing to the screen. "There has got to be _dozens_ of reporters and journalists that would give their right arm to interview us. And a lot of them are just starting out and would love the story that could make their careers."

"Ah, now I see..." Maxwell replied, grinning. "Don't look for a forest when all you need is a tree. I'll do some research; find one who seems trustworthy enough."

"Make sure whoever it is isn't a pushover." Reese added. "I'd hate answering hard questions, but they'll need to be asked."

"True, true." Maxwell said as he smiled. "Now watch a man at work."

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

"Thank you for coming so quickly." Xavier began as his X-Men sat inside the mansion's library after dinner, all looking over at him. Logan leaned against a wall as Ororo stood by her nephew. "Since we've had a few day to recuperate I believe now is the best time to discuss our approach to MAX Force. I was hoping we had some ideas by now." He said, as each of the X-Men looked over a collection of folders of pictures of the superhero team. "Logan, did your contact have anything for you."

"Two things." Logan said, chewing on a toothpick. "The first is _jack_, and the other would get me slapped by Ororo if I brought it up in polite company. Turns out he was hoping I had more info then him." 

"Sounds about par for course so far." Xavier said, sighing.

"I do know a _lot_ of people in the school think they really are heroes." Scott began. "Hell, last I heard a few members of the computer club were making a website and trying to get every piece of info they could on them. I asked to take a look, but I had to give my first hand accounts on the field to see what they had."

"Anything?"

"Some, but not very much." He admitted as he pulled out two pictures from a folder, one with the armoured one and the blue haired female. "One of the geeks said his father works as a prison guard and heard a couple inmates talking. He couldn't find the warden to pass on the info so he e-mailed it. Said geek looked over his e-mail." Scott pointed to the armoured one. "This guy is called Spartan." Then he pointed to the female. "And she's Tempest. Spartan, from what the geek got, is the leader of the team and Tempest was arguing over something with him. One of inmates seemed to think she was his second in command, or at least she thinks she is." Scott shrugged as he leaned back. "They were arguing over whether or not it was worth burning down the stash house they were busting. Spartan put his foot down and said they were letting the cops handle it."

"Well, it's something..." Xavier said, sighing. "That leaves four unnamed. But we know who the leader is."

"Perhaps we should find a way to speak with him." Ororo began, using a hand to gesture. "If we were to talk with him, expose our concerns for what their actions might do to all of us."

"I somehow doubt words will stop them." Xavier began, folding his hands before him. "However it _would_ allow us to understand their motives which may lead us into stopping their activities."

"Hey, I just noticed something!" Kitty exclaimed, pointing at a picture of the blonde haired one.

"What, what do you see?" Evan let off, moving to look over her shoulder. It was a picture of the blonde MAX Force member in a convenience store, kicking a guy in the face while another swung a crowbar at her head. The next pictures were of the blonde getting hit then kicking the crowbar guy in the nuts before kneeing him in the face, all without even flinching from the blow.

"They're all wearing masks!" Kitty exclaimed looking up.

Everyone groaned with Evan falling back into his seat. "Yeah, thank you for pointing out the obvious..."

"No, that's not what I meant." Kitty began. "I mean, they wear _masks_... to protect their identities."

"And where are you going with this?" Xavier asked, curious.

"Why don't _we_ wear masks?" Kitty asked.

The room went silent.

"...Uhhh... She's got a point." Rogue drawled off as she looked at Xavier. "I mean, why _don't_ we wear masks? I mean Logan's got one, and Scott's visor may as well _count _as one, and Kurt wouldn't need one... but what about me, Jean, Kitty, Ororo and Evan?"

"Well our costumes were meant only for the purposes of training, not actually going out in public in." Xavier explained.

"And how many times have we been fighting in public areas or in the open, out where people can see us?" Kurt asked, lifting a hand.

"... Ororo, if you would _kindly_ alter our uniforms from now on?" Xavier asked as Ororo gave a nod.

"I'll start tomorrow."

"Is there anything else we can think of?" Xavier asked as he looked about the table.

"_Nien_." Kurt said as he sighed. "Much as I hate to say it, we'd need them to come out and _talk_ to get anything else."

"With luck like ours it's a given that will be sooner rather than later." Xavier replied, shaking his head.

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

"You got a _date?_" Rogue let off as she looked over Scott as they walked out of the exercise room. The sun was going down over the horizon, the two doing a workout before the night engulfed the landscape. "With Taryn?"

"Well, I didn't think saying no was a good idea." Scott replied, shrugging. "Besides, it doesn't mean anything will come of it." He said, shrugging. Rogue narrowed her eyes a bit.

He still had eyes for Jean. Little miss perfect Jean, who already had a boyfriend. Maybe he finally decided it wasn't worth pining over her and it was time to move on?

Maybe if she had some control over her powers he wouldn't look so far for romance. Maybe look at what was right next to him even.

She shook her head after that thought. As big of a crush as she had on the young man, it wasn't worth pining over him either. She couldn't touch _anyone_ without hurting or even killing them and she couldn't expect him to wait for years to be able to do the things a guy would want to with a girl.

Hell, if she could get control of her powers she would have a hard time getting control of herself to keep from grabbing the first cute boy she saw and raping him, or at least shoving her tongue down his throat.

It was easy to talk about abstaining from sex if you could stop abstaining when you want. It was another thing when the choice wasn't yours.

"Something the matter?" Scott asked, looking back at her.

"I'm fine, really." She said in her southern twang. His eyebrows came together in worry, looking concerned. As much as she appreciated the worry she knew that if he told him what she was thinking it would burden him more than he needed to be.

Then again she had another problem that she could pass on that he might be able to help with and disguise her real issues. "Lance has been making passes at Kitty again." She began, stopping in the hall. "She hasn't flirted back yet, but from what she's saying she's starting to warm up to him. Maybe not enough to date, but I'll tell you this now... If guys think with their dicks when it comes to a pretty face, then girls think with their _clits_ when it comes to a cutie. And Lance is easy on the eyes, like it or not."

Scott snorted and crossed his arms. "Great..." He let off. Scott and Lance had _not_ met under good circumstances and every time they met it was like two bulls butting heads to decide the one that would lead the herd. "We should go make sure Alvers backs off her." He let off, cracking his knuckles.

"I don't think you two getting into a fight will help much." Rogue let off. "And telling Kitty that he ain't right for her won't help; she'll just fight us on it and date him to prove a point. We need to get Kitty's attention on something else."

"What about _someone_ else?" Scott asked, looking back.

"Maybe..." Rogue said, nodding as she cupped her chin. It made sense. If she could find Kitty a boyfriend then it would give her someone to focus her romantic attentions on instead of the Brotherhood's de facto leader. Lance wouldn't stop pursing the girl, but if Kitty had a boyfriend then she would give less attention to Lance. There was the issue of Lance trying to scare the guy off, but if Kitty put her foot down it might make him back away.

"I agree, we get her a suitor and he'll get the lion's share of her attention but Lance would try to spook the guy." Rogue said, laying out her thoughts out. "So we need someone who won't be scared off by Lance, at least not until Kitty tells him off for trying to scare him. You know anyone?"

"Good point." Scott admitted as he started to think. "Paul is out... Ricardo is out... Hmm, Joe is a love'em and leave'em type, that'll do more harm than good..."

"Come on Scott, you gotta know _someone_." Rogue stressed. "It ain't like I know a lot of guys."

"Yeah, except Reese." Scott replied, stroking his chin in thought.

Rogue looked up at him, blinking for a moment. She mouthed her friend's name for a moment before groaning and palming her face. "Gaaawd, I am _such _an idiot."

"What, what is it?" Scott asked, confused as Rogue looked back up at him before dragging her hand down her face.

"_Reese!_" She replied, grinning a bit. "I can set her up with Reese! I know he ain't gonna just back off if Lance tries to get in his face. Hell, Maxwell has a guy over there teaching Krav Maga to his students, so it ain't like Reese doesn't know how to handle himself. And I _know_ Kitty thinks he's hot." Rogue started rubbing her gloves together. "I'm sure if I ask nicely enough he'd be more than happy to go out with her, and I should be able to make the sale to Kitty."

"Sounds like you didn't really need any help." Scott said, smiling back. "You just needed something to bounce ideas of off."

"Well I appreciate it." Rogue let off before running off.

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

"We're going to _what?_" Alex let off before downing a piece of chicken, covered in sweet and sour sauce, dragged though chicken flavoured rice.

"Meet a reporter." Maxwell repeated. They were gathered around the table for a quick meeting, Alex having some of the leftovers from dinner earlier.

Ava glared at Alex as he downed some more Chinese food. She was green with envy! He could eat _anything_ he wanted, have seconds and thirds and still, _still_ he was incapable of putting on an ounce of fat.

She actually _watched _what she ate damn it! Her hot as hell body needed nothing but the best to be as sexy as it was!

"Right now there is a lot of guessing and misgiving about us." Reese said, looking over his team. "We'll operate better if people can trust us and know we're here for them. An interview is the best bet to clear the air."

"I've arranged things for tomorrow night." Maxwell said, smiling a bit. He used a small vortex to deliver a MAX Force card to the reporter's living room table. "Her name is Sally Floyd. She was an up and coming newspaper journalist until she found herself pregnant. Bad story; her boyfriend was killed by a gang member because of a mistaken identity, her job was on shaky ground because she was pregnant, then the fetus was miscarried. She turned to a bottle and lost her job. She's since joined Alcoholics Anonymous and landed a job in reporting again, this time for the six o' clock. She's done a few on camera gigs, but most of it was off camera."

"Wait..." Cassie began, raising a hand. "Am I correct as to assume we are going to trust the narrative of MAX Force into the hands of an individual who is still recuperating from substance abuse and may or may not commence mistreatment of the consumption of alcohol again if she is to visit further misfortune?"

"...Can I get that in smaller words?" Alex asked after a moment.

"She's asking if we're planning to let a former drunk tell our story." Reese replied.

"Well why couldn't she just say that?" Alex let off before chewing another bite of his food.

"The reason..." Maxwell began, cutting off Cassie rebuttal "Is that we need someone who we know won't try and call the cops on us. This is too big a story, and this woman needs a big break to get her career, and life, back on track." He began, leaning forwards. "I've looked over her work. She's tough but fair. She's only a bit... unfair when she is drunk. And all my sources say she's riding the wagon." The stories she wrote while drunk were easy to spot.

They'd involved calling World War Two veterans 'out of touch' for not being on Facebook. Thankfully _that one_ was never printed.

"You think this is a good call, Reese?" Conrad asked, turning to face their field leader who nodded.

"Yeah, pretty much." He replied. "I mean, face it, everyone knows the name MAX Force, but they don't know who Spartan is or Dynamo, or even Tempest. We are fighting to show people that metahumans are nothing to be afraid of and that we can be a force for the better. But to do _that_ we need the public's trust."

"Reese will be the front man for the interview when it comes to the group." Maxwell added. "The rest of you will probably be asked questions directly about yourselves, depending on what Miss Floyd wants for her interview. Remember, reveal _nothing_ that will compromise your real identity, but be honest and upfront. Don't be afraid to say 'I can't answer that question' if you're asked something that would compromise you, but otherwise be yourselves. Make them know that under the costumes what they can't see are six people who believe in the good humankind can do. And the good metahumankind can do."

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

_You make me smile like the sun_

_Fall outta bed_

_Sing like a bird_

"Hello?" Reese let off as he answered his phone, setting the katana on his bed as he walked to the window. The katana in question was just a wall hanger, it looked real but it was as dull as a butter knife.

He was still looking for an older one, pre twentieth century if he could.

"**Hey there sugar."** Rogue answered, setting her voice in a sultry tone. **"Lookin' for somethin' sexy?"**

"Rogue..." Reese sighed. "I thought I told you... I'm not having phone sex with you; I can't get my dick through the line."

Rogue gave off the bark of laughter he expected, himself grinning as well. That was the best thing about Rogue and Risty; he didn't need to be the serious, straight laced, clean cut good guy. He could use a few dirty jokes and suggestive flirts and both would joke right back at him in turn.

"**Well dang nab it, I thought I was getting a good time tonight!"** Rogue let off, giggling a bit. **"Seriously though, listen. I want to set you up on a date."**

"Aw, come on Rogue, you know I don't do the goth poetry sessions." Reese replied back, smiling a bit into the phone.

"**Ha, ha. That was so funny I forgot to **_**laugh**_**."** Rogue replied, deadpan but still with a twinge of humour. **"No, I don't me with me, dumbass, with Kitty."**

"Kitty?" Reese let off as he thought, walking back to his bed and sitting down. "Ah, that cute one right? Brunette? Ponytail? Nice little ass?"

"**That's her."** Rogue replied. **"I've been thinking she could use a hook up and I know you could use a hook up. Come on, what'dya say? I know she's free tomorrow night..."**

"Love to, but I got a full plate tomorrow night." Reese admitted, shaking his head. "But I think it's worth a shot... Think she'll swing Friday night?"

"**I think she can manage that."**

"What are you, her secretary?" Reese asked, smirking as he tried to make his voice as deadpanned as he could. "Do you schedule in time for her to polish the pearl too?" 

"**Polish the pearl? What the hell does that mea... Oh... Oh!" **He heard Rogue laugh on the other end of the line as she got the joke.

There were _so_ many girls that would be pissed if he made that one with them. **"Yes, but we had to cut back because of lack of lube."**

"Damn the global lube shortages..." Reese let off, chuckling. "Okay, I can do Friday then. Sevenish?"

"**Sevenish is great! Have fun! Try not to get her stuck in a tree."**

"Can I get her stuck in a bush?"

"**No."**

"Dang it."

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

"You set me up on a _date?_" Kitty asked sitting on her bed in her shared room, an eyebrow raised as Rogue calmly combed her hair, watching herself in the mirror, both in pyjamas.

"Yup." Rogue answered as she gave extra attention to the white streak at the front. Why did she have it anyway? Was it because of her X-Gene or some other weird quirk of genetics?

It wasn't dyed in like some people thought though.

"Well... Why?" Kitty asked as Rogue shrugged.

"Why not?" Rogue replied as she set the comb down, Kitty staring back with a slight glare. She sighed as she realized Kitty was rejecting that as an answer. "Look, I figured I'd be nice okay. He and Risty are the best friends I made on my own, and I kinda of want to see them happy. You're my roommate and I want to see you happy. If this works out well, then two birds, one stone."

Kitty halted her glare as she thought that over. She had to admit that Rogue had a point; and she had never had a boyfriend before. Hell the only person who really showed an interest in her over other girls was Lance and that relationship was... complicated. Particularly since he tried to use her powers to get test answers _and _tried to kill her and her family on the day they met. Then there was the fact that the Brotherhood and X-Men were constantly fighting each other. And _then_ there was the stunt he pulled during the assembly.

On the other hand he did have a sensitive side that he showed under all the bitterness and part of her nurturing instinct really wanted to cultivate that and help better him. On top of that he was a hot bad boy and a rebel. She was torn, but she knew that changing him for the better would be a lot of work.

Reese was another kind of guy all together who, the few times the two had shared words, came off a lot like Scott. Serious, take charge and lead by example. He was honest and polite but made no bones about his opinion if pressed and seemed to be a bit stubborn. On the other hand from what Rogue had told her he could tell some _very_ dirty jokes and once he let his guard down could be a bit like Kurt, joking and playful. He was also pretty cute himself, his features were more boyish than Lance's but no less handsome and charming, and seemed about as fit.

"Well, I guess it's worth a shot." Kitty said, smiling as she drew her knees to her chest. "When is it for?" 

"Friday." Rogue said as she moved to her bed, pulling the covers away. "Seven o' clock."

"Cool. Can't wait." Kitty said as each of them crawled into their respective beds before turning out their nightstand lights.

Rogue let herself smirk in the darkness. That was easier than she expected, and if everything went according to plan Lance would be left looking for another girl.

She hoped.

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

Thursday night. Scott's car parked in front of the Fujioka household. He looked over himself in the car's mirror, adjusting his blue, button up shirt to make sure he was presentable.

Well, he was _told_ it was blue. To his view it was red. Actually since he got his glasses he only recognized two colours, red and black.

Sometimes he felt like he would _kill_ to remember what exactly the colour blue looked like.

He stepped out of the car and cradled a bundle of flowers in his left hand, walking to the front door as he tried to remember what he could about Taryn's parents. Her mother was born in America but was of Japanese decent and her father moved to the country and went to Alaska to crab fish. After five years he moved to Bayville, acquired a business license and started a small computer company. He met Taryn's future mother when she came in to repair her computer. The business has since been soaring, and they fell into a whirlwind romance.

Her mother was an artist who had done a few good pieces, but wasn't well known. She did earn the household extra spending cash though. Overall it left Taryn with an upper middle class life style and well off. He raised his hand, knocking twice. After a moment of waiting the door opened. He looked down at the man who stood there, smiling a bit. He was a couple inches shorter than Scott was but looked fit and only had a hint of grey in his hair. "Mister Fujioka." Scott said as he held out a hand. The man smiled, shaking it in and overly friendly manner.

"Scott, yes?" He said, laughing a bit, his accent still heavily accented even after years of living in America. "And please, call me Shinji. You saved my daughter; you don't need to be a stranger here!"

"Ah, well thank you Mister, ah, Shinji." Scott said as Shinji gestured for him to step inside. Scott walked in, Shinji leaving the door open. "Alice! Look who's here!"

"Scott's here?" He heard, seeing a woman walk out of the kitchen, wearing a dress with an apron overtop of it. "Ah, good to meet you." She said, walking over and hugging Scott for a moment. Alice smiled as she stepped back as he got a good look at her. She had a slender figure with small but perky breasts and a face that looked a bit like her daughter's, only a small amount of wrinkles and thinner lips being the differences he could make out.

"Well, I can see where Taryn get's all her good looks from." Scott said as Shinji patted his shoulder, the woman blushing.

"Too bad she's claimed, huh?" Shinji joked, smiling back. "All seriousness though, we do thank you for saving our daughter. She is the world to us and we would have been devastated if we lost her."

"I'm just glad I was able to help." Scott replied as he shifted the flowers to his other arm. "And that... half the hawk was blown apart. It was kinda heavy."

Alice giggled a bit at the joke as small thumps sounded on the stairs, making Scott turn his head.

Taryn was descending, slowly, with her crutches in one hand the other on the rail. She was dressed in a nice, knee length skirt and a lighter coloured blouse with a dark vest over it. She had flat soled shoes on her feet. Once on the bottom of the stairs she set the crutches under her arms, smiling as she hobbled over.

She looked like an angel, a wounded, Japanese angel.

If only he could figure out what colours she was wearing...

"Oh, right." Scott said, mostly to himself as he held out the bundle of flowers. The way her face lit up, a smile beaming as she took them, told him the last minute stop to Ororo's attic had been worth it.

"Oh, they are beautiful..." She cooed as she held them to her nose. "Uh, Mom... Is there a vase we could..."

"Allow me." Alice said as she took the bundle from her daughter, taking it to the kitchen.

"Well, we ready to go Scott?" Taryn asked as Scott nodded.

"Um, I guess I'd be expected to offer my arm, but given the circumstances..." Scott began as Taryn giggled softly.

"The offer is appreciated."

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

Sally Floyd was a reporter for the Channel Six news looking for her big break and hoping that this is what would get her career, and life, back on track.

Since graduating college she had planned to go into reporting but had wound up falling for a handsome man who just so happened to be twelve years older and a professor. It was a love story that you could write a book on. Her parents had demanded that she break off with him and after refusing they stopped speaking with her.

She wound up with a job at the Alternative Newspaper and was working her way up when her pregnancy stuck. It made her job a bit shaky, and her boss hated her but respected her enough to keep her on while she started to focus on the growing baby. Her boyfriend promised to stand by her, and she even suspected he was going to pop the big question soon. Then he was mistaken for some gang leader and shot dead in the street by two young punks in the street.

The police said he had a ring in his coat pocket.

That was bad enough, and put her into mourning. She turned to her parent's for support and found none; only dismissals and rejection for dating someone they didn't approve of. At least she had his growing child though as a memory of him.

Then a man on the subway carelessly pushed her, stomach first into the guardrail.

She miscarried only days later. The double dose of heartbreak was followed up by her work declining in quality leading to her boss firing her. She had lost her love, her baby and her job.

She wondered if anyone would blame her for drinking.

She carried on as an independent journalist, finding work where she could but at best she was able to pay the bills, at worst she had least had beer money. One night wound up being her rock bottom; two guys in a dingy bar that were more than happy to liquor her up. Once she was good and drunk they took her outback of the bar in order to rape her.

It was funny. Sometimes when she got drunk off her ass she couldn't remember a damned thing later and others she could recall everything down to the smallest detail. This was one of the times where she remembered _everything_ as she did her intoxicated best to fight off the two men to no avail.

Then some short, stocky guy with hairy arms just walked up and beat the daylights out of both of them. He was handsome in a rugged way and said his name was Logan. Helped her up, let her heave her stomach up onto the alleyway, then led her to a coffee shop, bought her a brew of dark and a donut. After a while of pressing she sobbed out her story. And all he did was sit and listen, offer a pat on the arm to continue and let her cry herself into her coffee.

Maybe it was because she was _still_ drunk, but she felt better after letting all of it out. And then along came the stern talking too, like a gruff uncle to an unruly niece. He basically told her she needed help, and the sort she wouldn't find at the bottom of a bottle and said in no uncertain terms she needed to go into rehab or at least Alcoholics Anonymous. Deciding on the latter she went in the very next morning.

It was still a struggle coming to terms with everything, but since her boyfriend died she found one thing she was lacking; support. With that she had been able to at least piece herself back into something that looked human and went back into journalism. Most of the papers, however, weren't interested in hiring her but one of her new friends at AA was a producer on the Channel Six News and offered her a job to get back on her feet.

She'd thrown everything she could into her new job since then and had, when no one else was available, been on camera as an on scene reporter. She had started to work her way up to a regular on camera spot when her supervisor, William Dickson, passed her over for Candy Dames.

Candy was an airhead that had trouble pronouncing more complex words and once called Hilary Clinton, unbelievably, Hill-o-ray Clunt-ton.

There were two reasons she kept her job; one Dickson was a dick. In fact, depending on the person talking about him, he was either called The Dick or Dick-less, and the man seemed to try to keep anyone he could that had half a brain from rising up to a higher position. The other was that Candy was hot.

If you could take Taylor Swift's face, transplant it onto a Baywatch era's Pamela Anderson's body and gave her Paris Hilton's hair you would, in a nutshell, have Candy Dames. Her image was also in the dictionary right next to the phrase 'dumb blonde', but kept her job by serving The Dick, on her knees, in a locked room.

Bitch.

That left the still attractive but not as smoking hot Sally Floyd playing second fiddle to a woman who couldn't remember how many stars was on the flag of the country she was a citizen of.

It was enough to make her want a beer. God she had to fight the urge. She was pretty, but not as pretty as Candy. And she only had a large B cup, not the surgically enhanced double Ds Candy did. And Candy had long, shiny blonde hair, but she just had black hair that was well kept but never changed from an unruly mop.

The Dick, though, made a very critical error; he knocked up the boss' daughter. That alone didn't get him fired, but it made the boss watch him more closely. It didn't take long for him to notice that Dick was screwing everyone under him around and not much longer to fire him. The new supervisor kept Candy around for awhile, tried to make her improve and when that failed showed her the door; a door Sally could get her foot into. The only problem was she was jockeying for position and one of her biggest competitors was doing a story on MAX Force and the attack by the thugs in powered armour, with interviews from members of the Bayville High School Girl's Soccer Team, and rumour was it was turning into quite the read with a lot of focus going into the soccer team doing their best to get into fighting shape. She had been looking for something to cover, but aside from the latest pop star scandal had nothing that would hold a candle.

Then she found a little card on her table and knew she had something that might not just win her the job, it might make her career.

It was one of MAX Force's calling cards. On the back of it was a time, hotel address and number, room number she guessed, and a simple command; bring a camcorder. It was either a gift from the heavens or the cruellest prank anyone could ever play on her. Either way she had everything to gain; which was what brought her here, standing outside the Suite Royal Hotel in Bayville, one of the finest in the eastern seaboard.

"Sally, I don't know about this..." Lucy Walker, her camerawoman, said as she held her large camera bag in one hand. "What if... It's a trap of some kind? Like you have a real crazy stalker out to get you?"

"You're paranoid Lucy." Sally deadpanned as she turned to face her friend.

"Well it just seems too good to be true." Lucy insisted pointing at the hotel. "I mean what if it _is_ a trap."

"It's not a trap Lucy." Sally groaned. "At worst it's a practical joke on a larger scale." She added before walking towards the doors. "Now come on, let's see if this is legit."

"Oh boy..." Lucy sighed before following her friend. She knew she wasn't the best cameraperson, but she tried. But when it came down to it she was capable, but between plain looks and being surrounded by more competent people she wasn't on a fast track upwards. Still Lucy was Sally's friend, the two had been getting coffee together since Sally joined Channel Six, so it seemed right to the reporter to trust her with camera. Lucy just hoped it didn't lead them into trouble.

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

"Oh my god, he did that?" Taryn laughed out a bit, hiding her mouth behind her hand as it changed to a giggle.

"Unfortunately..." Scott sighed, shaking his head, but still smiling a bit. "Kurt's like that, practical joker... Like the little brother you always wanted, and want to give back every now and again."

"But still, setting all the clocks _back_ two hours?"

"Yeah, and everyone was cranky." Scott let of, his eyes rolling. "Have you seen Jean at four thirty in the morning and cranky? It's not a nice sight."

"I can imagine." She said as she had finally gotten her giggles under control. So far, for her, it had turned out to be a nice night and a good way to lead into tomorrow's road trip against the Lodestar High School team. It was a bit worrisome, Lodestar and Bayville were two of the top teams in the region and with the disaster at the pre-game rally it was a wonder that the team was in as good of a shape as it was. If anything she had to give it to Kelly; the team was in a depressed state and he had given a boot to each of their asses to get them moving again. Between the team shuffle and her and Jean working on tactics and the Principal getting the game changed to Saturday rather than Wednesday due to circumstances the Bayville team stood a chance of winning, but it didn't change that the team was still in a weakened condition with Lodestar acting the role of the Cougar, circling the prey.

Maybe Bayville would lose, _but not without a fight_.

"It gets a little wild in there sometimes, I gotta admit." Scott let off as he finished his food before sliding the plate to the side. "So, how's the ankle coming along?"

"Better, actually." Taryn admitted, leaning forwards. "Still hurts when I put weight on it, but getting better each day. I think next week I can limp around without the crutches."

"That'll be great." He replied, smiling. "Jean probably won't be cleared for two weeks though. She's going to be very stir crazy once the championships are over."

"Ugh, I bet." Taryn groaned. "Hell, I _am_ stir crazy. Getting around on crutches _sucks_." It had been a bit better since Scott, the gentleman that he was, got the doors for her and helped with her seat.

Chivalry lived, it seemed.

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

The elevator opened up allowing Sally and Lucy to walk out into the hall. Everything in sight looked _expensive_. Red carpets with gold coloured designs on the trim, wooden panels on the wall that looked to be stained oak, wallpaper with ornamental designs, chandeliers on the ceiling...

There was no expense spared here.

Eventually they came up to the room that was listed on the card. Letting off a sigh Sally raised her hand. "Now or never." She said, knocking twice firmly.

"Well, no one's home." Lucy said before a second was even up. "So maybe the card was a joke and-"

The door opened up, cutting her off. Sally gulped.

"Oh, hey there." Dynamo greeted, holding a shish kabob in one hand that had shrimp, beef, pork and assorted vegetables on it. "You ever try the room service in this joint? It's great!"

"...Oh god..." Lucy let off.

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

There were new releases, movies that they could have gone and seen, enjoyed in a theatre with the unhealthy popcorn and it's butter substitutes but Scott had a better idea, stopping at a video rental store and browsing for any good DVDs. He and Taryn found one on sale for under five dollars, a nineteen ninety one comedy called 'Hot Shots!' compete with the exclamation mark. Then he parked his car, just outside of Bayville with a view of the ocean, plugged in a ten inch screen portable DVD player and popped it in. They had enough sodas and snacks to last the video.

Both of them had spent the movie laughing at each joke, pun and punch line both visual and verbal. The movie was a parody of Top Gun and was _absurd_, staring Charlie Sheen before he went off on drug fuelled rants as a Tom Cruise act-alike. They laughed at it all, the dog that always got sat on, using jet fighters as cars, frying breakfast on a woman's belly... Even if it was somewhat stupid it was laughed at. At the end of the film both agreed that they needed so see the sequel, and even made arrangements for the next week.

The car ride back to her house was uneventful, save a few laughs and snickers, remembering odd parts of the movie. Once they got there he helped her out of the car and walked her back to the door, bidding each other a good night with the girl giving him a kiss on the cheek before departing.

That had left Scott driving home and thinking on his life to that point. He had been orphaned in a rather tragic accident. He didn't remember much of it, a plane, his parents ushering him and his brother Alex to the door, strapping them to the only parachute then pushing them from the aircraft. After that it was really foggy. The parachute deployed, then he knew that he fell, away from his brother and the parachute. He woke up a week later, bandaged and in a hospital, lucky to be alive. After Alex was declared missing and with no where else to go he was moved into a St. Louis orphanage. As one of the older children in the orphanage he was pressed into helping keep the younger children in line and making sure they were taken care of. It was a tough responsibility, but he did his best. Then one day he was outside, skipping stones in a river when his first optic blast shot out, blowing a tree trunk apart.

His powers had activated. At first it seemed random; a blast here, a blast there and never with his consent or approval. The day after Professor Charles Xavier had come to his orphanage and had adopted him. He took him to his plane, the original Blackbird, to move to Bayville.

One large hole in the hull and one near landing later, the original Blackbird was retired.

Xavier explained to him what was happening to him; that he was a mutant with a special ability that was now activating; the power of creating and channelling optic blasts through his eyes. It was his _gift_. Xavier did his best to help teach him the control and skills needed to keep this power under wraps, but as time went on it only became worse. They would almost never turn on as he wished and instead continued firing at random. Then they would turn into streams of power for a few seconds, then a few more, then a full minute. Finally an exasperated Xavier did a CAT scan on his head to see if they could solve the problem.

He totalled the machine, but they found the problem.

When he fell away from his brother during the escape from the doomed plane he fell onto a rock, dealing a severe blow to the back of his head. It had caused a minute amount of brain damage that, had he not been a mutant, would have had absolutely no effect on him. But the damaged part was responsible for the control and manipulation of his powers; it was essentially his optic blasts on/off switch and the damage had glued, stapled and duct taped it to the on position. And with his power developing more and more the only way he had to control his powers was to close his eyes.

Some gift that turned out to be; now he wished he could give it back.

During this time both Logan and Ororo were constant helpful companions during his worst times. Ororo was the sweet mother he could lean on when things became to much and he needed to be soothed and Logan was there like a stern uncle, giving him a kick in the ass anytime he let himself get down, pushing him into taking his life by the horns and making him too busy to be depressed.

After two months of blindness a new arrival came, Jean Grey. She herself had problems with her powers, mainly that they were causing her massive headaches. Xavier, being a telepath, could not only sympathize with her but knew how best to assist her and her telekinetic powers. With a companion his own age he felt more of a reason to push forward past his problems. In the meantime Xavier did his best to find a way to help his first student while he played with the new girl.

She started suspecting that he could see when he kept winning Marco Polo against her. Logan's blind training was very, _very _good. They played and roughhoused a bit; she was a bit of a tomboy back then, truth be told, but whenever he was lost or needed any help with something even his blind training couldn't overcome she was by his side, helping him every step of the way. They shared a bond that ran deep.

A year later Xavier had given him his first pair of ruby quartz glasses and when he donned them and they cancelled out his powers he felt relief. Sure, everything was _red_ but at least he could see. Once he knew that his now permanent optic blasts were contained he turned to look at Jean.

Holy crap was she pretty. Puberty was setting in and while he wasn't sure about much of anything when it came to girls he was sure this was the girl he wanted to be with him, but he never knew how to express it. Then came high school and the tomboy was gone and she showed a much more feminine, girly side that drew him in like a moth to a flame.

It also drew in Duncan Matthews who didn't hesitate in flirting with and asking out Jean.

It was as if he was punched in the gut, seeing his friend, his crush, his _girl _dating another guy. Then he realized that she wasn't his girl, she was Duncan's because he had the guts to ask her out while he couldn't spit it out.

After the other students came to the mansion and the fights with the Brotherhood, finding his brother again, the event with Magneto and MAX Force's arrival _nothing _had changed between them. She was his crush and he was, to her, the brother-like best friend that she could rely on and depend on, but not date. After pinning over her for so long he had to face a simple fact; she was going to be with Duncan for the foreseeable future. And after he saved Taryn during the attack he was forced to make a choice, one he doubted Taryn even knew she pushed onto him; continue pining over Jean who would never see him the way he saw her, or cut his losses and at least see if things _could_ work with Taryn. After all she was pretty, attractive and was more than open about the fact that she was _attracted_ to _him_. After some thought he made the choice; it was worth giving things with Taryn an honest try. As much as he wanted Jean he couldn't wait forever for her.

And it had turned out quite well. She had been a good, if somewhat bit clingy, company and he had gotten his, honestly, first kiss. It was on the cheek, yes, but it counted. It wasn't enough to make him shunt Jean from his heart, but Taryn had found a way in. As he parked his car he ran a hand past his hair. Things were looking up.

Had he took a moment to look up he may have seen Jean in the window, leaning on the frame with arms crossed, looking down at him sternly. After a moment she sighed, walking away.

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

Sally let off a sigh as Lucy finished putting microphones on all of the MAX Force members and setting up her small lights. She had their leader demonstrate his powers in person before anything else to be sure that, yes, it was real, and no, it was not a hoax or prank. They made small talk after the leader dissipated his sword and while Lucy readied everyone before setting up her camera and giving her a thumb up. Sally took a last moment to adjust her blue pantsuit, standing before the camera.

"Okay then, let's start. Start camera in three, two... This is Sally Floyd for the six o' clock news. For almost two weeks now we've had a team of empowered superheroes fighting crime and saving citizens. They have not, however, made any statements to the press or public. That is, until now." She let off, stepping out of the camera's view.

Spartan was standing in the middle of the room, arms folding behind his back as he looked over at Sally. Shadow sat on the desk, hands flat on it. Dynamo sat at a table further back, Electra seated on the table. Blondie and Tempest sat on the edge of the bed, the former with crossed legs and the later toying with a small, six inch tornado in one hand.

"There are a lot of questions to ask you, but the first is simply... What are your names?" Sally asked as the leader smiled at her under his helm.

"We haven't had a moment to wait around and shake hands I guess." He said, shrugging. "I'm Spartan. This is Blondie, Tempest, Shadow, Dynamo and Electra." He said, pointing to each with one hand before putting it behind his back again. "Together we are MAX Force."

"This leads me to the next question that needs to be asked." Sally said as she gestured with a hand. "You call yourself the _Metahuman_ Action Xtreme Force, but what exactly is a metahuman? Did you get bathed in odd chemicals, a science experiment, bathed in cosmic radiation or are you... aliens?"

"We were all born on this planet, I assure you." Spartan said, smiling a bit humorously. "Metahumans have a gene that most people don't have, we are born with it. But we do not have our powers at birth; typically they begin to manifest around puberty."

"Does the gene unlock itself the moment a meta goes through puberty?" Sally asked as Spartan shook his head.

"No. It occurs around puberty, but puberty itself is not the trigger. It can happen before puberty begins or after it has begun. You can be ten years old or sixteen years old when it goes active. It can also turn on normally or be induced by stress or fear. There isn't one single thing that the gene responds to; it's a number of factors."

"So are you saying that... _anyone_ we know is potentially a meta?"

"Yes." Spartan answered quickly. "But you need to know that we are still a very small minority. As far as we know a _tenth _of all active metahumans are in this room as we speak. At most we don't think there are more than one hundred of us around the world with, maybe, another one or two thousand that have yet to have their gene activate or have recessive genes that are more likely to never activate."

"Is there... a community of metas?" Sally asked after a moment, Spartan shaking his head.

"There's very few of us. As far as we know there is only two other active metahuman groups and both are staying quiet."

"Why is that?" Sally asked, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. "Why is it that they are doing nothing, but you're... dressing up in uniforms and risking your lives?"

"They are staying hidden because they are, to be blunt, _afraid._"

"Afraid of what?" Sally asked, blinking in confusion. "If the battle on Bayville High School's field was any indication you don't have much _to_ fear."

"On the contrary, history has been a rather _brutal_ teacher." Spartan replied, sighing. "Look at the Jews. For hundreds, thousands of years even they were shunned or considered sub-human before it all lead up to the Nazi Concentration Camps. That is an extreme example, I admit, but humanity has a bad habit of fearing what's different, and we are very different."

"You're afraid that, as a new minority, that you or your fellow metas will be targeted for hate crimes." It was not a question, Sally knew. What she said was a statement.

"Exactly." Spartan added with a nod. "In truth the only difference between me and another man on the street are my powers. I have dreams, I have wants. I have strong points and I have faults. But some people won't see that; they'll see that I'm different and base every judgment they have of me on that."

"I have to admit the point, but I have a point to make in turn." Sally began, Spartan nodding. "Normal people cannot destroy military grade weaponry without weapons. You are, forgive me, _living weapons_."

"You're forgiven." Spartan said. "And I can't argue the point. But that's a second reason for us; policing our own." He raised a hand to silence Sally as he continued. "I recognize that MAX Force is not sanctioned by, well, _anyone_ really, but we can handle other metas. In addition we are not judge, jury or executioner. We stop and detain criminals, human or metahuman. We leave everything else to the legal system."

"But how can you expect to _detain_ metahuman criminals?" Sally asked, looking the team over. "I, for one, can't picture any jail holding _any _of you for long."

"We are, through anonymous developers, looking for ways to disable a metahuman's powers." He replied, nodding. "Although we have nothing functioning yet there is a prototype planned and they know the science to make it work. Once we have tested it and confirmed it is harmless to use for long term periods, save negating a metahuman's powers, we will release it to the proper authorities."

"Authorities who will try and arrest you." Sally added. "Commissioner Armstrong has vowed, numerous times, to arrest and jail you as much as anyone you catch."

"We are disappointed by that, yes." Spartan replied. "We wish he was a bit more open minded about us, and we would be open to a working relationship with him and the BPD. I realise he is doing what he thinks is the right thing to do, and I can't fault him for it."

"That brings up another question I have." Sally added as Lucy zoomed in on Spartan. "Why dress up as superheroes in the first place? Why fight crime? Just... _why_?"

"We are here because of that fear I mentioned earlier." Spartan said, sighing. "Metahumans are a potential force for good. We can, by working with normal human beings, make the world a better place. And MAX Force is, what you might call, a showcase. We can help and many of us are _willing _and want to help. We are here to tell people that metahumans are among you, but we do not need to be feared. MAX Force is here to set the example and to inform people, not just normal humans but metahuman's whose powers are emerging. Many who manifest powers don't know what's going on, why they are making objects, why they can control the weather, why they can't be hurt. When my powers first came to me I nearly screamed. I didn't know how it happened; I just wanted to cut a piece of paper, and all of a sudden I made a pair of scissors. I was confused, I was afraid. I thought I was a freak. It wasn't until I was brought to the person who thought me about my powers that I was not a freak and I didn't need to be afraid. It takes time and effort but my powers do not control me, I control them; that they may be a part of me, but they are not all of who I am. That I may have powers, I may be meta, but I _am_ human. Metahuman."

"A lot of conviction." Sally admitted. "But by that means there are those of you who would just as soon rob banks that stop bank robberies."

"Yes, but powers are, in some ways, no different than if you randomly gave someone a gun that they could take anywhere." Spartan explained. "You _could_ rob a bank with it. Or you could use it to stop a crime and defend others. You can go out to the woods and shoot a deer to eat it. You could just go out to the middle of nowhere and just shoot at a target. Or you could do nothing with it, not doing good or evil with it. We need the public's help with this, to not only make sure that new metahumans can train to use their abilities safely but to make sure they are not persecuted or abused because of or for their powers."

"You honestly worry that normal people would be able to hurt someone who might, I don't know, is able to shoot lasers from their eyes?"

"We might be powerful, but we are not _invincible _or un-killable. You'd be surprised what a normal, non-empowered human being can do with the right motivation."

"This from a group that does not include normal humans." Sally pointed out.

"On the contrary, although metahumans are the ones who do the fighting we are assisted by three unpowered individuals." Spartan replied. "Two of them will remain nameless, but one operates under the call sign Skyway. She pilots our aircraft the Impact."

"One of the others must supply all your equipment and supplies then."

"I cannot answer that for reasons of confidentiality." Spartan answered curtly. "I will say this; we all believe in what we fight for; peace between metahumans and normal humans and that we can end a racial war before one can even spark."

"I see. Is there any last statement you'd like to make to the public?"

"Yes." Spartan said before moving his arms before him, gesturing with his words. "I know there are many of you, listening to this that support MAX Force. To all of you I want to say; thank you. Thank you for believing in us and trusting us, and we will do our best to make sure that your faith is well placed. I also know many of you do not support us and do not trust us at all. To you I say I understand your stance. I only hope that we can change your minds and show you that we all mean well. To those of you who are in law enforcement I say we are here to help you. We cannot replace you, and in no one's mind should we. We may be called superheroes, but you are heroes each day you walk out to do your jobs. To those who make laws and enforce them in the court of law I say that metahumans should not expect or receive preferential treatment save for difficulties with their powers in which I hope you show understanding. And to everyone I say this; we are metahumans. We are among you, but you need not fear us or hate us. We are in need of your support, not only so we may become productive members of society but to understand who we are and what we can do. And one last thing; thank you for you're time."

"And cut it there." Sally said, nodding to Lucy. "I'll make my final statement later, once I've... digested everything."

"Well, I think it went well." Dynamo stated as he turned to Spartan. "Can I finish the food now?"

"Yeah. Sure." Spartan sighed before looking back at Sally. "Damned bottomless pit..."

MAX-MAX-MAX-MAX

"Think it'll be on TV soon?" Conrad said as the team emerged from the hidden elevator and into the hallway, the door shutting behind them.

"Well they might have to edit it for TV, but she said she'd fight anything from being taken out of context." Reese replied, referring to Sally. "Either way I think it went better than I expected."

"Yeah, speaking of the power dampeners, how they coming Cassie?" Rayn asked as they all stopped in the hall.

"Well, we do know that a specific pulse of low radiation, specifically a harmless variant of cosmic radiation, can neutralize a metahuman's power, however it requires to be at the specific pulse and wavelength." Cassie began, taping her chin. "In addition we are still miniaturizing it to a manageable size that can be used for both on field apprehension of unlawful metahumans, but also those with powers that are unmanageable or unable to be used with safety. In addition there is a matter of cost to consider, since we expect law enforcement to manufacture them independently."

"...So, it's coming." Rayn deadpanned after a moment.

"Yes, it is."

"Look, it's been a night, we did the interview, and we nailed a jewel thief on the way home..." Reese listed off as he walked down the hall. "Let's call it a night and be done with it."

"Yeah, it's Friday tomorrow." Alex let off. "Which means the weekend! Oh, and deals on that burger joint!"

"Figures he'd think about food..." Ava sighed.


End file.
